Aéronautique Fin...
Carrier plane used on the Bern, they had a pretty uneventful career & where mainly used for training.
Nieuport built several prototype carrier planes before the war, each one an improvement on the last. The LN.42 was the culmination of these efforts, the prototype was finished just before France fell tho & was then hidden at a farm for the duration of the war. Post-war development continued but by then it was obsolete so it was scrapped.
The Bugatti 110P was a proposed military version of the 100P race plane. The 100P was incomplete when France was invaded & in fear of it being captured it was then hidden at a farm (yep again!) where it stayed forgotten for 30 years. It was later sold several times until it ended up in an American museum. That's not the end of the story tho, as there is currently a small group building a full sized working replica of the 100P, so after 73 years this plane might finally get to fly.
Production of the Le0 451 started in 1938 but problems with the engines & propellers meant that only 54 of the 222 built where operational during the battle of France. After the fall of France they continued to serve the Vichy French forces, who even built another 109 of them. By the end of the war only 67 survived tho, they continued to be used until to 1957 & where the last French pre-war plane to be taken out of service.
The MB.162 was like a lot of bombers of that era the military version of a long range passenger plane, the MB.160. The prototype was ready a few weeks before france fell, production was planed to start early 1941 tho, if it had t would have given France a heavy bomber on par with the likes of the B-17. In 1943 the prototype was taken to Germany & used by the KG 200 unit, who specialized in using captured & experimental aircraft for secret operations.
Well that's all the french stuff for awhile, next thing on my todo list is to finish the last of the Italian units, then there is just the Americans left...
