Quote:
Originally Posted by edwest2
A little background about the H.232 from another forum. I hope it is accurate.
"It's her plane was a French twin-engined advanced trainer. The construction of the aircraft was initiated in 1936 by Hanriot's chief designer Montlaur. The aircraft was produced by the nationalized factory SNCAC.
The French Air Ministry made an initial order of 40 H.232.2's. This order was though soon was extended to 57. The French Air Force started to receive their H-232.2's in February, 1940, and received a total of 35 before the defeat against the Germans in June 1940. The Germans captured 22 aircraft of this type, and since they did not have any use of them, Finland placed an order for three aircraft from the Germans. [1] One was destroyed in an accident during the ferry flight to Finland, the other two saw service as advanced trainers in the Finnish Air Force and were written off on January 2, 1950. During the Winter War the French had planned to send 25 aircraft of this type to Finland. The German aircraft were scrapped in 1942." |
Hi Ed
Without knowing the source of all the Wikipedia stuff, I find it a bit odd that what they seem to say refute a lot that has been published before, also by French authors.
My own "facts" below comes from both Avion and Le Trait d'Union.
The design which started to take shape in 1936 was the H.230 and not 232.
Neither the H.230 (underpowered and unstable) nor the H.231 (first to use the twin fin arrangement but still with a fixed undercarriage) found any favour and the design was again reworked into the H.232 which had a retractable undercarriage but oddly enough reverted to a single fin. Again reworked, this time with a twin fin arrangement the final design came out as H.232/2 (many French authors use H-230 etc instead of H.230)
The H.232/2 No 01 (prototype) made its first flight 16 Dec 1939.
First order was for 40 aircraft (order number 534/8)
This was followed by an order of 22 from Finland (date unknown)
When the war broke out, France onesidedly canceled the Finish order and it was incorporated into the French total. As far as is known there is no further order confirmation, so the exact number which the French actually wanted from the canceled Finish order is not known. Most French authors settle with a total order of either 57 or 58, ie an additional requirement of either 17 or 18.
The number actually produced is not known. There is a photo of the tail of No 40, but this no doubt never left the SNCAC factory at Bourges.
First deliveries to AA were around Feb 1940 and the recipient was the training unit CIB at Chateauroux, a lead in unit training future pilots of the Breguet 690 range of aircraft.
The number delivered to AA is unknown, but it seems at least 35 production aircraft received an AA "buzz" number, H660 - H679 followed by H585 - H599. The highest s/n mentioned in my French sources is No 34.
It would be interesting to know from where the total of 22 captured aircraft comes from. I can only find a mentioning of 20 captured aircraft in late 1942 when the state of Vichy finally fell. Incidentally all these 20 s/n are known.
I have a feeling that the three (well two in the end) received by Finland were the only flyable aircraft the Germans could produce. Nothing I can proofe, but the three delivered to Finland were No 21, 23 and 24 so No 25 could well have been used as spares and incorporated where necessary in the other three. But that is speculation only and it's better to stop there.
I cannot for the life of me understand how the French Government should have been able to send 25 aircraft to Finland due to the Winter War. By the time it ended in March 1940 the French had barely managed to deliver any aircraft to themselves, and they had just canceled the Finnish order!!
Anyone with further details is welcome to update this brief synopsis of mine.
Cheers
Stig