My latest find. The frame was broken and the painting dirty, but I managed to save this 1935 beauty of an Amiot 140 Squadron. The Amiot 140 was the ancestor of the ill famed Amiot 143. On may 1940 they launched an attack on the Meuse bridges and most were shot down. This is therefore a rare survivor . The Amiot 140 was a twin-engined stressed skin bomber that was the precursor of the Amiot 143, one of the French bombers in service at the time of the German invasion in 1940. The Amiot 140 was designed in response to a French Air Ministry specification of 1928 that called for a twin-engined four-seat all-metal multipurpose monoplane. Four companies were awarded contracts to produce a prototype, amongst them the Société d'Emboutissage et de Construction Mécanique (SECM or Stamping and Mechanical Construction Corporation), led by Félix Amiot. Although the aircraft eventually took Amiot's name, it was designed by a team led by André Dutartre. The Amiot 140M was undoubtedly an ugly aircraft, with a rectangular fuselage, large thick wing, awkward looking nose and a large glazed gondola below the superstructure, but it did have the performance required by the French Armée de l'Air. After making its maiden flight on 12 April 1931 the Amiot 140 underwent tests at CEMA (the Air Material Research Centre at Villacoublay) and took part in night manoeuvres in July 1933, before on 23 November the Armée de l'Air placed an order for 40 aircraft. Two re-engined prototypes - the Amiot 142 andAmiot 143 were built, and it was the second design, powered by air-cooled radial engines, that entered service as the Amiot 143M. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_amiot_140.html
Actually it was quite straight forward for the early 30s . Now imagine the fuselage without the gondola and you get a precussor of the modern 1940s bombers. I'm quite sure this inspired many more aircraft. The mistake was to "ameliorate" this aircraft as such, with the gondola, instead of removing it . ( several solutions to this problem were found later : for example the B-17 kept a small ball turret and the Ju-88 used a a smaller bathtub type gondola, whereas the He111 used glass nose). The Amiot 140 and 143 nonetheless made their contribution to aviation improvements. Too bad this was at the cost of so many lives. On a more artistic filed. I love how the artist depicted the effect of movement and diving.
