The Caudron C.440 ''Goéland'' ("seagull") was a six-seat twin-engine utility aircraft developed in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the mid-1930s.

Design and development

It was a conventionally configured low-wing

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at 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 cantilev ...

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 wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with tailwheel

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

. The main undercarriage units retracted into the engine

nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a streamlined container for aircraft parts such as Aircraft engine, engines, fuel or equipment. When attached entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached with a Hardpoint#Pylon, pylo ...

s. Construction was wooden throughout, with wooden skinning everywhere but the forward and upper

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

sections, which were skinned in metal. As usually configured, the cabin seated six passengers with baggage compartments fore and aft, and a toilet aft.

Operational history

Caudron C445 27 January 1943 342-FH 000700

Apart from private buyers, the C.440 was also bought by the

Armée de l'Air The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...

, Aéronavale, Aéromaritime, Régie Air Afrique and

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

, and some were exported for service with

Aeroput Aeroput () was an airline and flag carrier of Yugoslavia from 1927 until 1948. Society for Air traffic AD Aeroput was the first Serbian company for civil air traffic, which was founded on 17 June 1927 as ''Društvo za Vazdušni Saobraćaj "Aero ...

. Production of the C.440 and its subtypes continued until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, at which time many C.440s were impressed into military service. Following the fall of France, some were operated by the German

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

and

Deutsche Luft Hansa ''Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G.'' (from 1933 styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' and also known as ''Luft Hansa'', ''Lufthansa'', or DLH) was a German airline. It served as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and t ...

. Another user was the

Slovak Air Force The Slovak Air Force, known since 2002 as the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic (), is the aviation and air defense branch of the Military of Slovakia, Slovak Armed Forces. Operating 15 aircraft and 18 helicopters fro ...

– it ordered 12 aircraft as the C.445M in 1942. Production began again after the war for military and civil use as a transport and as a twin-engined trainer. In the postwar reorganisation of the French aircraft industry, Caudron became part of

SNCA du Nord Nord-Aviation () was a state-owned French aircraft manufacturer. The bulk of its facilities were based on the site of Bourges airport, in the département of Cher, in central France. On 1 October 1954, Nord Aviation was created as a result of t ...

and the aircraft became the Nord Goéland; 325 of these were built. Postwar commercial operators included Air France, SABENA,

Aigle Azur Aigle Azur was a French airline based and headquartered at Paris Orly Airport. The airline operated scheduled flights from France to 21 destinations across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, with a fleet of Airbus A320 family and A330 aircr ...

and Compagnie Air Transport (CAT).

Variants

* C.440 - prototype (three built) * C.441 - version with

Renault 6Q The Renault 6Q, also called the Renault Bengali 6, is an air-cooled straight engine, inverted in-line six-cylinder, aircraft piston engine, producing about continuous power. It was designed and built in France and produced for more than ten ye ...

-01 engine and dihedral added to outer wing panel (four built) * C.444 - first version with counter-rotating propellers, adopted on all later versions (17 built) * C.445 - similar to C.444, but dihedral of outer wing panels increased (114 built) ** C.445/1 - two built ** C.445/2 - three built ** C.445/3 - postwar production version (510 built) ** C.445M - militarised version (404 built) ** C.445R - long-range version (one built) * C.446 Super Goéland - one built * C.447 - air ambulance version (31 built) * C.448 - version with supercharged engines (seven built) * C.449 - final production version (349 built, including subtypes below) ** C.449/1 ** C.449/2 ** C.449/3 ** C.449/4 - photographic survey version ** C.449/5

Operators

; *

Belgian Air Force The Belgian Air and Space Component (, ) is the Air force, air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces, and until January 2002 it was officially known as the Belgian Air Force (; ). It was founded in 1909 and is one of the world's oldest air services. ...

* SABENA ; *

Bulgarian Air Force The Bulgarian Air Force () is one of the three branches of the Military of Bulgaria, the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces. Its mission is to guard and protect the sovereignty of Bulgarian airspace, and jointly with ...

; *

Vichy French Air Force The Air Force (), 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 France established in th ...

; *

Air Bleu Air Bleu (Société Anonyme Air Bleu) was a French airline between 1935 and 1940 that specialised in the delivery of mail within France. Air Bleu started operations on the 10 July 1935 with Caudron Simoun aircraft operating four different airmail ...

* Aéromaritime * Aeronavale *

Armee de l'Air The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the French Air Fo ...

* Chargeurs Réunis * (CAT) * Règie Air AfriqueAir-Britain Aviation World December 2011 p.173 ; *

; *

LAPE LAPE, Spanish Postal Airlines ''(Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas)'', was Spain's national airline during the Second Spanish Republic. History LAPE, often also spelt L.A.P.E. and colloquially known as ''"Las LAPE"'', replaced CLASSA (''Com ...

;: *

Royal Yugoslav Air Force The Royal Yugoslav Air Force ( sh-Latn, Jugoslovensko kraljevsko ratno vazduhoplovstvo, JKRV; sh-Cyrl, Југословенско краљевско ратно ваздухопловство, ЈКРВ; (, JKVL); lit. "Yugoslav royal war aviatio ...

- One aircraft was impressed into military in April 1940. ; *

Slovak Air Force (1939–1945) The Slovak Air Force (, or SVZ), between 1939 and 1945, was the air force of the short-lived World War II Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovak Republic. Its mission was to provide air support at fronts, and to protect Bratislava and metropolita ...

;

Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII. It was dissol ...

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 () and Naval Aeron ...

Specifications (C.445M)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caudron C.440 Goeland 1930s French civil utility aircraft C.440 Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1934 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft with retractable conventional landing gear