The Sud-Est LeO H-246 was a large four-engined

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

from the late 1930s.

Development and design

The LeO H-246 was designed by the French aircraft manufacturer Lioré-et-Olivier to meet a 1935 specification for a commercial flying boat for use on the Mediterranean routes of

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global air ...

.Green 1968, p. 44. It was a four-engined parasol

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

of mixed construction and powered by four 720 hp (537 kW)

Hispano-Suiza 12X The Hispano-Suiza 12X was an aircraft piston engine designed in France by Hispano-Suiza during the early 1930s. A 12-cylinder Vee, liquid-cooled design, the 12X was used on several aircraft types, some of them being used in limited numbers durin ...

ir liquid cooled

V12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The fi ...

s. All four engines were mounted in streamlined nacelles ahead of the leading edge of the wing. It had a

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

hull which was of similar layout to that of Lioré et Olivier's H-47; it had seats for 26 passengers, and a crew of four.Stroud 1992, pp. 51–52.Nicolaou 1998, p. 82. The prototype H-246.01 (Lioré et Olivier's factories had been nationalised at the end of 1936, so the aircraft was built by Sud-Est) made its maiden flight from the

Étang de Berre The Étang de Berre (in Provençal Occitan: ''estanh de Bèrra / mar de Bèrra'' according to classical orthography, ''estang de Berro / mar de Berro'' according to Mistralian orthography) is a brackish water lagoon on the Mediterranean coast of ...

on 30 September 1937.Stroud 1992, p. 52.

placed an order for six H-246.1 aircraft in January 1938, with the prototype also being brought up to production standard for commercial service.

Operational history

The refurbished prototype and the first production aircraft were being readied for commercial service when the

Second World War 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 ...

broke out in September 1939. The

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 ...

drew up plans to requisition the H-246s as maritime patrol aircraft, but Air France still needed them, and the Navy agreed to take over only four of the aircraft. This allowed Air France to commence operations with the prototype on the

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

–

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

route on 14 October 1939. The third production aircraft was completed for the Navy in June 1940, with a glazed position in the nose for a bombardier/navigator, bomb racks below the wings and four 7.5 mm Darne machine guns as defensive armament. It entered service with ''Escadrille'' 9E on 25 August 1940, the only aircraft of the type actually to be operated by the French Navy, with the remaining aircraft going to Air France.Green 1968, pp. 44–45. In November 1942, the Allies landed in French North Africa and, in response, German forces

occupied ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

. They seized the single French Navy H-246,Green 1968, p. 45. along with three Air France aircraft.''Air International'' August 1972, pp. 106–107. Two more Air France aircraft were at Algiers at the time and so escaped seizure by the Germans. (The prototype H.246 had been withdrawn from use in 1941). The German

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

took over the three seized ex-Air France aircraft, fitting them with five

MG 15 The MG 15 was a German 7.92 mm machine gun designed specifically as a hand-manipulated defensive gun for combat aircraft during the early 1930s. By 1941 it was replaced by other types and found new uses with ground troops. History The MG 1 ...

machine guns as defensive armament and carrying up to 21 soldiers or 14 stretchers. The aircraft were used for various tasks, including transport in Finland. The ex-French Navy H-246 was destroyed at

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

by Allied attacks in the spring of 1944. After the war, the two surviving H-246s were used by Air France to restart the Marseille–Algiers service, continuing in use until September 1946.

Operators

; *

received 6 aircraft. *

;

Vichy French Air Force The Air Force (french: Armée de l'air), usually referred to as the Air Force of Vichy (''Armée de l'air de Vichy'') or Armistice Air Force (''Armée de l'Air de l'armistice'') for clarity, was the aerial branch of the Armistice Army of Vichy Fra ...

operated aircraft taken over from Air France. ; *

operated 4 aircraft captured in Vichy France.

Specifications (H-246.1)

References

Bibliography

*Bousquet, Gérard. ''French Flying Boats of WW II''. Sandomierz, Poland: Stratus, 2013 * Donald, David. ''The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Leicester, UK: Blitz Editions, 1997. *Green, William. ''War Planes of the Second World War: Volume Five Flying Boats''. London, Macdonald, 1968. *Nicolaou, Stéphane.
Boats & Seaplanes: A History Since 1905
'. Bideford, UK: Bay View Books, 1998. . * "Plane Facts: LeO in Finland". ''

Air International ''AIR International'' is a British aviation magazine covering current defence aerospace and civil aviation topics. It has been in publication since 1971 and is currently published by Key Publishing Ltd. History and profile The magazine was fir ...