The Farman F.250 was a small, four passenger single engine low

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

wing

airliner An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an ...

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 in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 1931. The single example built was bought by an airline but was little used, owing to stability issues.

Design and development

The Farman F.250, nicknamed ''Gros 230'', did look rather like Farman's little two F.230 trainer but was a much larger aircraft, with a span about ⅓ bigger and weighing some 2.5 times more. It was designed to carry four passengers over long distances. Wood was used both in the structure and skin of the whole aircraft, which had low,

wings and a flat sided

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

containing the passenger cabin, located over the wing and lit by three square windows. The pilot's open cockpit was further aft, on top of the fuselage in a streamlined fairing. The fin had a straight, swept leading edge and a squared-off top, with a deep, almost rectangular rudder moving in a cut-out between the elevators; the latter were mounted, with the tailplane, on top of the fuselage. Forward of the cabin, the top and bottom of the fuselage curved in to form the nose, so that much of the uncowled 380 hp (285 kW)

Gnome-Rhône 9A The Bristol Jupiter was a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developments turn ...

a radial, a licence-built

Bristol Jupiter The Bristol Jupiter was a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developments turn ...

, stood away from the skin. A long exhaust pipe ran under the fuselage, exiting behind the cabin. The F.250 had a fixed

conventional undercarriage Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

with single mainwheels on faired V-struts, plus a long, vertical tailskid.

Operational history

The F.250 first flew in 1931; in September Farman's chief test pilot Lucien Coupet took it to Villacoublay for official tests, During these it achieved a range of flying speeds between 60 km/h and 245 km/h (37-152 mph). Homologated in January 1932, it became part of STGA's fleet but only flew for 31 hours and did not fly any commercial flights because of a general lack of stability. It passed to Air France in the summer of 1933 when this airline was formed by the merger of several French airlines, including STGA.

Specifications

References

Bibliography

* {{Farman aircraft 1930s French civil aircraft F.250 Low-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1931