The Caudron C.270 ''Luciole'' ("Firefly") was a sporting, touring and trainer aircraft produced in France in the 1930s, derived from the
C.230.
Design and construction
It was a conventional biplane with single-bay, unstaggered wings of equal span. The pilot and a single passenger sat in tandem open cockpits. It featured a fabric-covered fuselage in place of the C.230's wooden one, and other refinements including revised control surfaces and undercarriage, and an improved and simplified wing-folding mechanism.
Operational history
The type proved immensely successful, with over 700 machines built in the decade leading up to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Of these, 296 were purchased by the French government for its pilot training programme, the ''
Aviation Populaire''. Many examples saw wartime service as liaison aircraft, and those surviving the conflict saw postwar use as glider tugs in the
''Ecole de l'Air''.
On film
![Caudron Luciole July 4, 1970](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Caudron_Luciole_July_4%2C_1970.png)
*
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
used two Lucioles in their 1966 film ''
The Blue Max
''The Blue Max'' is a 1966 British war film directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Karl Michael Vogler, and Jeremy Kemp. The film was made in DeLuxe Color and filmed in CinemaScope. The plot is a ...
''. These had the rear seat converted into a machine-gun position so that they look like British observation planes. One of these survives on the American registry.
*
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...
used one Luciole for their film ''
Von Richthofen and Brown
''Von Richthofen and Brown'', alternatively titled ''The Red Baron'', is a 1971 war film directed by Roger Corman and starring John Phillip Law and Don Stroud as Manfred von Richthofen and Roy Brown. Although names of real people are used and em ...
'' (released in 1971).
*
EMI Films
EMI Films was a British film studio and distributor. A subsidiary of the EMI conglomerate, the corporate name was not used throughout the entire period of EMI's involvement in the film industry, from 1969 to 1986, but the company's brief conne ...
used one Luciole for the 1976 film ''
Aces High'', this time reconverted to look like a British
Avro 504
The Avro 504 was a First World War biplane aircraft made by the Avro aircraft company and under licence by others. Production during the war totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind tha ...
.
[Mark Carlson, ''Flying on Film: A Century of Aviation in the Movies, 1912–2012'' Duncan, Oklahoma: BearManor Media, 2012. .]
Variants
![Caudron_C](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Caudron_C.278_L%27Aerophile_September_1932.jpg)
* C.270 - first production version with
Salmson 7A
Between 1920 and 1951 the Société des Moteurs Salmson in France developed and built a series of widely used air-cooled aircraft engines.Gunston 1986, p. 158.
Design and development
After their successful water-cooled radial engines, develop ...
c radial engine (82 built)
** C.270/1 - version with Salmson 7Ac2 engine
* C.271 - version with
Lorraine 5P
The Lorraine 5P, also called the Lorraine 100CV, Lorraine 110CV and Lorraine 120CV, was a family of five-cylinder air-cooled radial engines designed and built in France by Lorraine-Dietrich during the 1920s and 1930s. Nominal engine powers were ...
c engine (1 built)
** C.271/2 - version with Lorraine 5Pb engine
* C.272 - version with
Renault 4P
The Renault 4P, also called the Renault Bengali Junior, was a series of air-cooled 4-cylinder inverted inline aero engines designed and built in France from 1927, which produced from to .
Design and development
Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic Ocea ...
b inline engine (52 built)
** C.272/2 - version with Renault 4Pci engine and taller, more pointed tail fin (22 built)
** C.272/3 - version with Renault 4Pdi engine and wheel brakes (15 built)
** C.272/4 - version with Renault 4Pei engine and wheel brakes (21 built)
** C.272/5 - version with Renault 4Pgi engine (80 built)
* C.273 - version with
Michel 4A-14 engine (14 built)
* C.274 - version with
Chaise 4B
The Chaise 4B is an aircraft engine designed and built in France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories i ...
a engine for 1932 Paris
Salon de l'Aéronautique
The Paris Air Show (french: Salon international de l'aéronautique et de l'espace de Paris-Le Bourget, Salon du Bourget) is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France. Organized by the French ...
(1 built)
* C.275 - main production version derived from C.272/5 but without wing folding (433 built)
* C.276 - version with
de Havilland Gipsy
The de Havilland Gipsy is a British air-cooled four-cylinder in-line aircraft engine designed by Frank Halford in 1927 to replace the ADC Cirrus in the de Havilland DH.60 Moth light biplane. Initially developed as an upright 5 litre (300 ...
III engine
** C.276H - version with
Hirth HM 504
The Hirth HM 504 is a four-cylinder air-cooled inverted inline engine. The HM 504 was a popular engine for light aircraft of the 1930s-1940s, and it was used to power a number of Germany's trainer aircraft of World War II. The engine featured a ...
A-2 engine (2 re-engined from C.276)
* C.277 - similar to C.272/4 with non-folding wings (9 built)
** C.272R - C.275 re-engined with Renault 4Po3 after the war (1 converted)
* C.278 - version with new undercarriage and Salmson 9Nc engine to compete in
Challenge 1932 The Challenge 1932 was the third FAI International Tourist Plane Competition (french: Challenge International de Tourisme), that took place between 12 and August 28, 1932 in Berlin, Germany. The four Challenges, from 1929 to 1934, were major aviat ...
(1 built)
Operators
;
*
French Air Force
The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; ...
;
*
Spanish Republican Air Force
The Spanish Republican Air Force was the air arm of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic, the legally established government of Spain between 1931 and 1939.
Initially divided into two branches: Military Aeronautics ('' Aeronáutica M ...
Specifications (C.272)
See also
References
Bibliography
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External links
Caudron aircraft on Aviafrance.com
{{Caudron aircraft
1930s French sport aircraft
C.270
Biplanes
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1931