Bugatti Intercepteur, Armée de l'Air, Battle of France 1940

[Wez]

Special Hobby have recently released a 1/72nd scale kit of the futuristic looking Bugatti 100 racer, as the real aircraft had no markings, the kit contains no decals which got me thinking what if the French turned the Bugatti into an interceptor aircraft?

 

The real aircraft was designed in response to German advances in aviation, it was constructed from wood in a similar fashion to the superlative Mosquito and was powered by two 450hp Bugatti engines which drove contra-rotating two bladed propellers via a common gearbox (similar to the Fairey Gannet).  Its calculated speed was a phenomenal 885km/h, that's an astounding 553mph to you and me!

The aircraft never actually flew and was hidden away during the war but a replica powered by two motorcycle engines did fly in 2015 only to crash, sadly with fatal consequences in 2016.

 

When I got the kit I recalled that the Caudron C.714 was a lightweight fighter based upon earlier Caudron racing aircraft, if they could do that with the Caudron, maybe they could do the same with the Bugatti...

 

The Back Story

 

In my alternative history...

 

...In 1938 with the storm clouds of war gathering the Ministère de l'Air was scrabbling around for modern aircraft types to re-equip the Armée de l'Air.  The Ministère had become aware of Etore Bugatti and Louis de Monge designing an aircraft to win the 1938 Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe aeronautical speed competition.  Bugatti and de Monge were confident the aircraft could reach the unheard of speed of 885km/h, the Ministère de l'Air were extremely interested, like Caudron were doing with the C.714, could the racer be adapted into a fighter.

 

Bugatti and de Monge being patriotic Frenchmen rose to the challenge and set about adapting their design.  Cramming military equipment such as guns, a radio and some armour protection for the pilot into the same airframe would increase the aircraft's weight and it's top speed would be reduced but the two men were confident it would still be the fastest thing in the skies, estimating its speed to be in the region of 750km/h.

 

By the time the work was done the 750km/h estimate proved to be somewhat over optimistic but it could still achieve a useful 700-720km/h (437-450mph), unfortunately, the aircraft was difficult to fly and by attempting to keep the airframe identical to the original racer concept, there was precious little fuel, a long sortie would last no longer than 45 minutes, typical combat sorties would use the fuel up in about 30 minutes or less.  The Ministère de l'Air was desperate though and accepted the aircraft as a point defence Intercepteur.

 

The aircraft would be stationed at strategic points and would be launched at the very last minute using their, for the time, phenomenal speed to climb and intercept incoming raids.  A handful of aircraft were assigned piecemeal to units and only the most experienced pilots were assigned to fly the aircraft.  Pilots praised the aircraft for its high speed but flying it required constant attention which made it tiring to fly, it was a good job sorties were short.

 

As the fortunes of war turned against the French, unserviceable aircraft were burned to stop them coming into German hands as the French forces retreated, finally, at the armistice there were fewer than a dozen aircraft left at Le Bourget airfield.  Determined the Germans weren't going to learn the secrets of the aircraft, pilots and groundcrew set fire to the remaining aircraft so that none survived.  The original prototype and all documents associated with the aircraft were hidden and only rediscovered post war.

 

The model...

 

The model comes in three plastic sprues (one clear), plus a number of resin parts, the latter are used for the main wheel wells, the radiator faces in the tailplane structure and the exhaust fairings, as previously stated, there's no decals, I have some spares kicking around which will hopefully do the job, I'll dig those out later in the week.

 

Anyway, here's the stunning boxart showing the racer in flight...

 

 

...here's the kit contents...

 

 

...I've made a start glueing some parts together, here you can see the fuselage halves, the long cylindrical fairings on the cockpit wall are, I think, for the engine drive shafts.  Locating these fore and aft is left to the modeller, I used the cockpit rear bulkhead to align them but I might need to fettle them later.  Special Hobby suggest the cockpit interior to be red, frankly, that's not a very military colour for a cockpit so I went for something resembling bleu de nuit, a dark blue which was used on many French aircraft cockpits, I actually used Humbrol 104 for this.

 

 

I also painted the wheel wells a chamois colour which is typical of many French aircraft (I used Humbrol 93).  Special Hobby state the wheel wells are in a wood finish, great for a racer but again, not in keeping with a military aircraft...

 

 

I'm leaving the paint to dry whilst I start getting dinner ready (steak and chips with a red wine and mushroom sauce in case you're interested).  More updates in the coming days.

[invidia]

currently building this kit,   a word of warning,  when fitting the undercarrage bays ( resin) you may have to sand them down to about half to get the upper wings to fit, also i had to sand the cockpit bulkheads to get the fuselarge halfs to fit.

mines going to be blue with white racing numbers.

[Wez]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

Good luck with yours, I look forward to seeing the result.

[Alan P]

Very nice, looks fast even sitting on the ground. A 'what might/could/should have been' more than a what if!

[Noel Smith]

The Bugatti Racing Aeroplane as a fighter?     I think that the notion was a bit fanciful.   

From what I have read only 1 prototype was ever built in a furniture factory in Paris and spirited away perhaps into Vichy controlled France and hidden in a barn during the war.

It was designed as an out and out racer originally to compete for the Deutche De la Muerth trophy but re assigned attempt to take the all out world air speed record.

Bugatti and his Belgian designer Louis De Monge probably put forward some concept ideas to the French government at the time for an interceptor based on the design.

More than likely Bugatti saw the opportunity to make a lot of money from such a venture.

[Wez]

1 hour ago, Noel Smith said:

The Bugatti Racing Aeroplane as a fighter?     I think that the notion was a bit fanciful.   

From what I have read only 1 prototype was ever built in a furniture factory in Paris and spirited away perhaps into Vichy controlled France and hidden in a barn during the war.

It was designed as an out and out racer originally to compete for the Deutche De la Muerth trophy but re assigned attempt to take the all out world air speed record.

Bugatti and his Belgian designer Louis De Monge probably put forward some concept ideas to the French government at the time for an interceptor based on the design.

More than likely Bugatti saw the opportunity to make a lot of money from such a venture.

 

I wouldn't know about any of that, the back story is from my own fevered imagination, not based on fact, that's why its a What-If?

 

Hopefully I'll get some bench time this week and pick it back up again but not tonight unfortunately.

[Noel Smith]

I could see where Wez is coming from with his imaginary back story.I

The French Air ministry did approach Bugatti about the possibility of an interceptor being made from the aircraft, and Le Patron could see this as a way of investment into his company rather than a serious possibility. The aircraft was made from lightweight wooden materials like ply and balsa, using hardwoods for main structural parts being designed as an out and out racer.

A full size replica was made and flown in the USA. Unfortunately it crashed during its third test flight due to a sudden loss of power to one of its contra rotating propellers. The airframe itself proved to be ok aerodynamically however.

The Special Hobby kit is the latest of this aircraft. The first kit was made by Matt Hargreaves in Seattle by his Projekts Models Company way back in 1972 and was the only other injection moulded kit of this subject. The others made since have been in resin until this Special Hobby release. Most have been in 1/72 scale apart from the Les Cooper kit in 1/43rd to match the popular model car scale. I have recently built the fully detailed Fisher resin  kit in 1/24th scale, and it is a most impressive model kit.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Noel Smith