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The Loire 46 was a French single-seater fighter aircraft of the 1930s. A high-winged monoplane designed and built by Loire Aviation, it was purchased by the French Air Force. It was also supplied to the Spanish Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War, but was almost out of service by the outbreak of World War II.
The program of single-seaters in 1928 not being satisfactory, it was updated in 1930. This new edition gave birth to 10 prototypes: Bernard 260, Blériot-SPAD S.510, Dewoitine D.500, Gourdou-Leseurre GL-482 , Lorraine-Hanriot-Biche, Morane-Saulnier MS.325, Mureaux 170, Nieuport 122, Wibault 313 and Loire 43. In fact Loire Aviation had offered in 1929 to the STAé a light fighter that could receive different engines: Gnome and Rhône Titan II of 300 hp (Loire 40), Hispano-Suiza 12Mc of 500 hp (Loire 41) or Gnome and Rhône 9 Abs Jupiter II of 420 hp (Loire 42). The Loire 43 was simply an evolution of the precedents, equipped like all its competitors with the engine imposed by the program, a group 12 cylinders in line water-cooled and compressed Hispano-Suiza 12 Xbrs of 660 hp. If the Dewoitine D.500 largely won the competition, the distrust of the monoplanes prompted the Ministry of Air to also order the S.510. After four years of development, the Loire monoplane was also the subject of a small serial order.
A high-wing, all-metal, working-surface, fixed-wing, single-hulled monoplane, this aircraft featured a gull wing on the upper fuselage between the cockpit and the engine and was fitted with two .5mm Darne 7 machine guns. The prototype took off for the first time from La Baule beach on October 17, 1932. The January 14, 1933, before the official tests started, the aircraft went into a spin at 9000 m and crashed, killing the pilot who seems to have lost consciousness due to the altitude reached.
At the moment when the Loire 43 was accidentally destroyed, the construction of a second prototype was completed at Saint-Nazaire, equipped for comparison with a 14-cylinder Gnome et Rhône 14 Kd engine of 740 hp and armed with two 20mm Oerlikon guns in the wing. With the exception of the engine, it was distinguished from its predecessor only by thicker mats supporting the landing gear and the cantilever of the wing. This aircraft, which took air on February 20, 1933, thus replaced the Loire 43 for the official tests, which took place in June in Villacoublay. It suffered from a lack of visibility for the pilot that Loire tried in vain to improve by changing the root of the wing. Restored with a Gnome-Rhône 14 Kcs of 880 hp in August 1934 and then with an enlarged drift in October. This aircraft later received a Gnome-Rhône 14 Kfs of 900 hp with which it took the air on July 18, 1935 and finished his career as a parachute test plane under the name Loire 45 LP1. The aircraft survived the Second World War and flew again in the early 1950s with the civil registration F-AKHP and a military livery.
The Loire 46 was an improved modification of two previous Loire fighters—the Loire 43 and 45. Although improved, it resembled the earlier machines retaining their gull mono-wing configuration, open cockpit, and fixed landing gear. The first of five prototype Loire 46s flew in September 1934. It demonstrated excellent handling characteristics and 60 production aircraft were ordered by the Armée de l'Air.
Variants
The initial machines arrived at fighter Escadrilles in August 1936. In September 1936, the five prototype Loire 46s were sent to the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War.
By the beginning of World War II, the Loire 46's gull wing configuration was recognized as obsolete and most of these fighters had been relegated to Armée de l'Air training schools, where they were used as advanced trainers. However, one fighter Escadrille was still equipped with the Loire 46 during the early weeks of the war. Their performance against modern German fighters was predictable.
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