The SFCA Maillet 20 was a French three seat tourer built in 1935. The Armée de l'Air ordered 30 for training and liaison and several were raced. The aircraft was developed through 1935 via

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

layout and

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

changes to the provision of retracting

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

Design and development

The ''Société Francaise de Constructions Aéronautiques'' (SFCA) was set up in July 1934 to build light aircraft designed by André Maillet, though Maillet was killed in an aircraft accident on 30 June 1934. The company's first design, the Maillet 20, was a direct development of the earlier Maillet-Nening MN-A, Maillet-Nening or Maillet 01 built by Maillet and Nening, respectively chief pilot and chief engineer at the Roland Garros Aero Club, which undertook its first test flights in December 1933. Both aircraft were three seat,

low wing 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 ...

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 ...

s powered by Régnier 6 inverted inline engines. The

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 of the Maillet 20 was an all-wood, two

spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...

structure with

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

skin, finished with an outer fabric layer. It had a rectangular centre section and tapered outer panels with dihedral, ending at semi-elliptical tips. The inner wing carried split flaps. The

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 ...

structure was also wooden, with an oval cross-section and was ply and fabric covered like the wings. Its , air-cooled, inverted six-cylinder inline Regnier R 6 was in the nose, driving a two blade,

variable pitch propeller In marine propulsion, a variable-pitch propeller is a type of propeller with blades that can be rotated around their long axis to change the blade pitch. Reversible propellers—those where the pitch can be set to negative values—can also ...

and with its fuel stored in the fuselage. There were three seats in

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

, with the pilot in front; dual control could be fitted and there was luggage space behind the third seat, large enough to hold three suitcases. The seats were enclosed under continuous multi-panel glazing which ran unbroken into the raised top of the rear fuselage, coupé fashion. The rear surfaces were constructed like the wings; the

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

, attached halfway up the fuselage, could be adjusted on the ground and carried

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

s with cut-outs for movement of a rounded, unbalanced rudder which reached down to the keel. The

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

was straight-edged and round-topped. Though the MN-A and the Maillet 20 had much in common, one obvious difference was in the landing gear. Both designs had mainwheels on vertical legs from the outer part of the wing inner section but the earlier model also had diagonal V-struts from axles to lower fuselage, whereas those of the Maillet 20 were cantilevers, without struttage. The legs had Messier oleo

shock absorber A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which is then dissipated. Most sh ...

s and mounted the wheels in forks. Both legs and wheels were enclosed in fairings. The Maillet 20 first flew on 24 March 1935, piloted by Louis Massotte. Two were built. The ''Armée de l'Air'' bought 30 examples of a very similar trainer version, fitted with automatic two speed propellers, designated the Maillet 201. More distinct was the Maillet 21, a rebuild of the second Maillet 20 under construction in May 1935, with the pilot in the rearmost seat; this allowed the forward glazing to be lowered and faired smoothly into the forward fuselage. The pilot's seat was raised with a clear forward view through a small windscreen in a head-wide, faired, part glazed dorsal enclosure. A metal, variable pitch propeller improved the take-off performance and the Maillet 21 was expected to clear a obstacle from the start of its run. It was flying by July 1935. Towards the end of 1935 the SFCA produced a version of the Maillet 21 fitted with a retractable undercarriage and named the Maillet-Lignel 20. The legs were mounted at the same positions on the centre sections as with the earlier models but retracted into the outer wing panels. Five were built.

Operational history

Two Maillets competed in the July 1935 ''12 heures d'Angers'', one at least a Maillet 21. One dropped out and the other, flown by de la Combe, came sixth. In the first ''

Hélène Boucher Hélène Boucher (23 May 1908 - 30 November 1934) was a well-known French pilot in the early 1930s, when she set several women's world speed records and the all-comers record for 1,000 km (621 mi) in 1934. She was killed in an acciden ...

Cup'' race for female pilots, contested on 31 August 1935,

Claire Roman Claire Roman (born Claire-Henrietta Emilia Chambaud, 25 March 1906 – 8 August 1941) was a French aviator. In the 1930s she participated in speed races and broke world records for altitude and speed, and completed a long-distance flight to India. ...

finished second in a Maillet 21. Mlle Jourjon competed in the Maillet 20. In the 1936 event Roman was second again in the same aircraft, followed in third place by Yvonne Jourjon in a Maillet 20. After the breakout of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

, at least one Maillet 21 ended up in the

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 ...

where it was used as a trainer.Jean Massé, ''Des avions pour l'Espagne ! : La guerre civile aérienne en Espagne vue de France'', Broché, 2006.

Variants

; Maillet 20: Prototype; two built. ; Maillet 201: Production trainer version; thirty built for l'Armée del'Air. ; Maillet 21: Second Maillet 20 modified with relocated pilot's seat and more streamlined canopy. ; Maillet-Lignel 20: Maillet 21 with retractable undercarriage; five built.

Specifications (Maillet 20)

References

Bibliography

* {{SFCA aircraft SFCA aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft 1930s French sport aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1935