The SNCAC NC-420 was a French observation flying boat built by SNCAC in the 1940s.
Development and design
The aircraft was developed under a program initiated by the
French Navy in March 1937 to replace the aging
Loire 130 floatplane. Had it entered service, the
fast battleship was to have carried three of the aircraft. The program requested an aircraft that had an endurance of six hours and be able to carry a bomb load. The endurance requirement was later reduced to five hours to save weight.
The NC.420 was a twin-engine aircraft, an uncommon arrangement for ship-borne reconnaissance aircraft where a premium was placed on compactness. It could nevertheless be reduced to a width of with the wings folded, which made it comparable in size (and weight) to the Loire 130 it was slated to have replaced.
Work on the prototype was nearing completion in June 1940, but the German victory in the
Battle of France
The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...
ended many French military programs, including that for the NC.420. The
German Armistice Commission
The German Armistice Commission (german: Waffenstillstandskommission, WAKO) was a military body charged with supervising the implementation of the Franco-German Armistice, signed on 22 June 1940, in German-occupied France during World War II.Uni ...
approved the construction of up to fifteen aircraft to replace Loire 130s that were damaged or destroyed through normal operation, but work thereafter proceeded slowly and the prototype was only completed in mid-1943. Italian occupation forces thereafter disabled the aircraft's controls so it could not be flown to join
Free French Forces in
North Africa.
Specifications (NC.420)
Footnotes
References
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{{SNCAC aircraft
1940s French aircraft
Flying boats
SNCAC aircraft
High-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1942