The Gourdou-Leseurre GL-812 HY was a 3-seat reconnaissance

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

, built by

Gourdou-Leseurre Gourdou-Leseurre was a French aircraft manufacturer whose founders were Charles Edouard Pierre Gourdou and Jean Adolphe Leseurre. History Engineers Jean Leseurre and his brother-in-law Charles Gourdou founded the ''Établissements Gourdou-Leseur ...

Development

The prototype, called L-2, was built in 1926-27. It has a steel tube fuselage, and rectangular wooden wing. The tail was two fins, one above and one below the fuselage. The entire plane was fabric covered, except the

Gnome-Rhône 9A 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 ...

engine, which was left uncowled. The prototype was flown to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, and demonstrated there to several countries. Six prototype L-3s were constructed. They had a larger Jupiter, steel spars instead of wood, and stronger struts, allowing for shipboard catapult launching. After successfully testing the L-3, the French navy ordered 14 production GL-810 HY aircraft. The first production 810 HY flew on 23 September 1930, taking off from the

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Les Mureaux Les Mureaux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. It is located in the north-western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zer ...

. In 1931, 20 GL-811 HYs were ordered, for operation from the seaplane carrier

Commandant Teste ''Commandant Teste'' was a large seaplane tender of the French Navy (french: Marine Nationale) built before World War II. She was designed to be as large as possible without counting against the Washington Naval Treaty, Washington Treaty limits. ...

and from 1933 to 1934 twenty-nine GL-812 HYs and thirteen GL-813 HYs were ordered.

Variants

Gourdou-Leseurre_L-2_L'Aérophile_October,1927

Gourdou-Leseurre_L-2_3-view_L'Aérophile_October,1927

;Gourdou-Leseurre L-2 :The initial prototype of the catapult-launched floatplane observation aircraft. ;Gourdou-Leseurre L-3 :Six prototype development aircraft with revised structure. ;Gourdou-Leseurre GL-810 HY :Initial production - 24 produced for

Aeronavale French Naval Aviation (often abbreviated in French to: ''Aéronavale'' (contraction of Aéronautique navale), or ''Aviation navale'', or more simply ''l'Aéro'') is the naval air arm of the French Navy. The long-form official designation is ' ...

. ;Gourdou-Leseurre GL-811 HY :Developed version - 20 built from 1931. ;Gourdou-Leseurre GL-812 HY :29 built 1933-34. ;Gourdou-Leseurre GL-813 HY :13 built.

Operators

; *

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

Units using this aircraft

*Escadrille 7S2 (

) *Escadrille 7S3 (spread among various cruisers) *Escadrilles 1S1, 2S1, 2S4, 3S1, 3S2, 3S3, 3S6, 8S2, 8S5. While most aircraft had been retired by 1939, that August the remaining aircraft were brought together to re-equip the recently re-activated and mobilized Escadrilles 1S2 and 3S3 at

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

and

Berre-l'Étang Berre-l'Étang (; oc, Bèrra) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France. Population See also * Étang de Berre * Communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône department The followin ...

, respectively and perform coastal anti-submarine patrols.

Specifications (812 HY)

References

Bibliography

* * {{Gourdou-Leseurre aircraft 1920s French military reconnaissance aircraft GL-812 Aircraft first flown in 1930 Single-engine aircraft