__NOTOC__ The Latécoère 26 was a French monoplane

mail plane The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

designed and built by Latécoère.

Development

The Latécoère 26 was designed in the 1920s as a mail carrier, based on the earlier

Latécoère 25 __NOTOC__ The Latécoère 25 was a French airliner built in 1925 for use on Latécoère's own airline and its subsidiaries. Essentially a refined version of the Latécoère 17 with an enlarged wingspan, it supplanted that type in production and ...

with a longer fuselage, and first flew in 1926. It had a parasol wing with a fixed tailskid landing gear. The main landing gear was both robust and wide-track, to enable the aircraft to land on unprepared surfaces. It was powered by a single nose-mounted

Renault 12Ja Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

piston engine, and had room for only two passengers and an open cockpit for the pilot.

Operational history

Most of the aircraft were operated by Aéropostale on North and West African mail routes; two aircraft were sold in Argentina.

Variants

;Laté 26 :Initial production variant. ;Laté 26-2-R :Introduced in 1927 it had a radio compartment. ;Laté 26-3 :Added fuel tank in wing centre-section. ;Laté 26-3-R :With a balanced rudder. ;Laté 26-6 :Added a co-pilots cockpit in tandem behind the pilot, different landing gear and increased fuel capacity. ;Laté 26-6/2 :Re-engined with a 500hp (373kW) Renault engine and reduced wing area and tail surfaces.

Operators

; ; * Aéropostale

Specifications (26-2-R)

References