| NC.470 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Trainer floatplane |
| National origin | France |
| Manufacturer | SNCAC |
| First flight | 1937 |
| Primary user | French Navy |
| Number built | 35 |
The Farman NC.470 (also known as the Centre N.C-470 when Farman was nationalised to form SNCAC) was a French twin-engined floatplane designed as a crew trainer for the French Navy. It was used in small numbers for both its intended role as a trainer and as a coastal reconnaissance aircraft at the start of World War II.
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In 1935, the Farman Aviation Works designed as a private venture the F-470, a twin-engined floatplane intended to be used as a crew trainer by the French Navy. A production order for ten aircraft was placed on 8 March 1936, it being intended that these aircraft would use spare floats left over from now retired Farman F.168 torpedo bombers.[1]
In 1936, Farman was nationalised, and merged with Hanriot to form the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Centre or SNCAC. The prototype, now redesignated NC-470, first flew, with a temporary wheeled undercarriage, on 27 December 1937.[1]
The NC.470 was a twin-engined high-winged monoplane of mixed metal and wood construction, with two radial engines mounted on low mounted stub wings. It had a slab sided fuselage, housing the crew of two pilots in a tandem cockpit, a navigator/bombardier in the nose and a radio operator, flight engineer and gunner in the rear fuselage. The aircraft was designed to carry an armament of a single Darne machine gun on an open dorsal cockpit, together with up to 200 kg (440 lb) of bombs.[2][3]
The first order for 10 NC.470s was completed by mid-1939,[3] together with a single example of the NC.471, powered by a different model of Gnome et Rhône radial engine.[2] Further orders brought production of the NC.470 to a total of 34.[4]
While intended as a crew trainer, a shortage of coastal reconnaissance aircraft resulted in NC.470s being drafted into this role, with three NC-470s and the sole NC-471 being used together with three CAMS 55 flying boats to equip Escadrille 3S4 at Berre in August 1939.[2][5] The NC-470 was also used by the aircrew training school at Hourtin. Fourteen aircraft were captured by Germany during the occupation of Southern France in November 1942.[6]
Data from War Planes of the Second World War Volume Six [6]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
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