Latécoère 28

Maximum speed: 223 km/h (139 mph)
Range: 4,685 km (2,928 miles)
Service ceiling: 5,200 m (17,100 ft)
Rate of climb: m/min ( ft/min)
Wing loading: kg/m² ( lb/ft²)
Power/Mass: kW/kg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Latécoère 28 was a successful French long-haul mailplane and passenger airliner of the 1930s. It was the main symbol of Air France's predecessor, Aéropostale in its efforts to establish intercontinental air mail services and support French colonialism and French cultural influence between the wars.

Its pilots were famous poets and French men of letters such as Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Jean Mermoz as well as the usual veterans from World War I.

A total of about fifty planes of several versions were built between 1927 and 1932. The seaplane version was the first to make a postal delivery crossing of the South Atlantic in 1930.

This high-wing single engine plane was first built with Renault engines which were soon replaced by Hispano Suiza 12Lbr giving 500 hp (370 kW). The floatplane version had the Hispano Suiza 12Lbr giving 650 hp (480 kW).

Technically, it was a refinement of the Latécoère 26 fuselage. The passengers had access to a washroom.

It became famous in South America because of the regular mail service it ensured, from France to Argentina, and further on. With this plane it was possible to send a letter from Paris to Santiago de Chile in what seemed then like an astonishingly short four days. Previously, the mail steamships had taken weeks or months.

It had a very limited military career. Venezuela bought one for use as a bomber and the government of France gave several to the republican side in the Spanish Civil War.