France's Forgotten Heavy Bomber That Bombed Berlin | Farman F.222 / F.223 |

in the 1930s a series of heavy bombers were built by french manufacturer farmen though often forgotten they were able to carry a remarkably heavy payload for the time and were amongst the heaviest bombers in service at the start of world war ii today we're going to take a look at the series as a whole as it can be considered one long continuation of a single design and also because the record keeping for this aircraft in the 1930s was about as chaotic as the french government in 1929 at the request of the air staff a program was drawn up for a four engine night bomber the intention being to replace the liore and oliver leo 20 which had only entered service the previous year this was done in response to a gradual increase in franco-italian tension and although there was talk of a potential league of nations memorandum that would prohibit large-scale bombing an idea that remained in the realm of fantasy the french weren't going to take any chances the new bomber program called for an aircraft capable of carrying two tons of bombs over a range of 2 000 kilometers in typical french fashion for the time this program would change its requirements almost as much as the french government changed office but through the administrative chaos farm and aviation works managed to submit a proposal dubbed the f-211 it was a high wing monoplane of mixed construction it was powered by four 300 horsepower gnome rhone radial engines that were suspended beneath the wing in tandem pairs struts connected them to the wing and a curious pair of wing-like extensions connected them with the fuselage designed for a crew of four it would normally have a pilot co-pilot a nose gunner who also acted as bomb aimer and a rear gunner the aircraft made its maiden flight on october the 19th 1931 and in december it was presented to the eligibility committee for testing during these tests several problems were noted that made the 211 a poor choice as a heavy bomber the controls particularly the elevator were very heavy the centre of gravity was too far aft which made landing a somewhat terrifying experience the wings had insufficient strength to prevent warping of the material its range was considerably shorter than predicted a mere 900 kilometers and the aircraft top speed of 195 kilometers an hour meant that even with a tailwind it was woefully slow as a result of this the aircraft was extensively modified in 1932 the front fuselage was lengthened to bring the center of gravity forward the wingspan was increased from 23 meters to 25 meters the wing itself was strengthened and the engines were replaced by supercharged variants that gave 350 horsepower the aircraft was then redesignated as the f212 and presented for testing in february of 1933. during these tests it reached a top speed of 250 kilometers an hour and was able to reach an altitude of 3500 meters in just 18 minutes though a significant improvement farmen had realized that their aircraft was too small and they abandoned development of the f-212 and began work on the f-220 unlike the previous model the f-220 was of an all-metal construction with the exception of the control surfaces the fuselage and wings were constructed of a mix of steel tubular frames and girders all of which was covered by a stressed metal skin it was powered by four hispano sweeter engines that put out 600 horsepower again arranged in tandem pairs and these drove four blade fixed pitch propellers in terms of size it was considerably larger than the 212 having a wingspan of 36 meters and a maximum loaded weight of 16 tons with its nose vaguely resembling that of a greenhouse the f220 took off for the first time on the 26th of may 1932 and following some modifications to its internal structure the details of which are completely unknown but it was probably to add some sort of wine rack it was admitted for testing the following year one of these tests involved the unapologetically french requirement of landing 200 times on the cobbled strip at the town of east all joking aside the aircraft was actually lucky to even get there on route flying through the rhone valley the aircraft began to experience wing flutter and if anyone out there has experienced this first hand they know how terrifying it is this particular incident became so severe that the pilots were forced to watch on in horror as the wing rivets started breaking free and scattering the french countryside with the throttle excessively reduced they were able to just make it to the landing strip before the airframe disintegrated around them following the incident the f220 had all of its missing rivets put back in the correct place along with a set of balances for the ailerons this seemed to mostly fix the fluttering issue but the aircraft's image had soured in the minds of officials and at the conclusion of the endurance tests it was rejected as a bomber without a definitive use in november 1934 it was converted into a long-distance mail carrier at the request of air france with farman redesignating it as the f220b it was equipped with additional fuel tanks in the place of bombs though it kept the balcony style nose and it was fitted with new hispano radiators to improve its long-distance endurance in hotter climates after 333 hours of flight testing it received its official certificate of air worthiness and was renamed lycenter on the 3rd of june 1935 on loan to air france from the french government it made its first atlantic crossing from dakar to natal in 14 hours and 52 minutes during its commercial career the centaur made 24 south atlantic crossings the last one occurring on the 29th of june 1936 as no more models of the 220 were produced and thus no source of spare materials its life was doomed to be short and after failing its inspection in august it was retired though short-lived the centaur left its mark and as a result of its performance air france ordered a more advanced version of the f220b to augment its slow fleet of mail carriers back on the bomber front things had moved on to the f-221 this was essentially an improved version of the 220 rather than a completely new design it now had a trapezoidal tail and the gunner's positions were enclosed under glass domes the engines were swapped out for the more powerful gnomerone 14 kbrs which put out 730 horsepower these engines also had reduction gears and was supercharged though more advanced than the previous design farman had made the odd decision of retaining the fixed undercarriage from the earlier models the f-221 made its maiden flight at the end of 1933. unlike the previous iteration it didn't try to shake itself apart on route to the testing grounds and during the flight trials it impressed pilots by being able to land without flaps at less than 80 kilometers an hour the 221 so impressed members of the french air ministry that an order for 10 production aircraft was placed before the tests had even concluded the production model of the f-221 differed little from the prototype the main exception being that they now came with an improved versions of the engines that produced 800 horsepower each this allowed them to carry a slightly heavier bomb load than originally designed and depending on the mission they could carry between 1.2 and 2.2 tons of bombs at an average speed of 290 kilometers an hour ever in the pursuit of improvement farming quickly moved on to the next iteration they built an improved version of the 221 which amongst small airframe changes featured more powerful engines again of 870 horsepower and finally a retractable landing gear this was presented as the f222-1 and was immediately approved for another production order of 10 aircraft as a result of the improvements farman's bombers can now boast an operational load carrying top speed of 325 kilometers an hour and a range of 1800 kilometers they were delivered to 815 bombarment group in april of 1937 and were generally well liked by their crews however before these units had even arrived the french government had already signed another two contracts for an order of 24 more bombers and once again these would come in the form of a new variant this one being dubbed the f222-2 these new models received a marked dihedral on the outer wing sections to correct some lateral instability and the front fuselage was lengthened by 88 centimeters and sloped to provide better visibility for the pilot while the first eight of these had the same engines as their predecessors the other 16 were equipped with a more advanced version that featured improved cooling though there was no change in power output it did mean that they could fly under higher power for longer they also carried a heavier bomb load again being able to carry 100 to 500 kilogram bombs for a total load of just under 4.5 tons that's nothing to sniff at by 1930s standards and depending on what is classed as a heavy bomber by various sources france could be said to be the only european nation to have operational squadrons of heavy bombers at the outbreak of world war ii though they would only drop leaflets during the phony war the f-222s would be amongst the first to drop actual bombs on german territory with over 133 tons being dropped in may 1940. not long after this in an interesting turn of events one of those bombers would end up on british soil after being borrowed by french pilot james denis who wanted to evacuate himself and 20 of his comrades after landing safely he would go on to serve in the free french air force becoming an ace and shooting down nine german planes the last of farman's big bombers to enter service was the f223 which was later renamed to the nc223 when the company was nationalized unlike the previous models this one featured more radical design changes the fuselage was significantly redesigned to both improve strength and reduce weight and it now had a twin tail arrangement to improve its lateral stability the prototype model had been built as a male carrier back in 1937 as part of the request by air france for a modern version of the old f-221 but with europe's stability teetering towards war it was also evaluated for military use this new aircraft marked a return to the hispano-sweezer engine and with a 6000 litre fuel tank it was hoped to further improve upon the f-222 as a potential heavy bomber these homes are soon realized during an endurance trial when it set a new record for carrying a 10-ton payload over a distance of 1000 kilometers as a result of this orders were quickly placed for the nc 223-3 along with being a highly evolved airframe compared to its predecessor the 223 also had modernized equipment the hispano-sweezer engines were further upgraded to provide a 1100 horsepower each it had a brand new pneumatic flap system and it featured a smith autopilot system its defenses were also improved with the two rear-facing machine guns being replaced by 20 millimeter hispano cannons the first production model flew at the end of 1939 and the last of a 15 unit order was ready for flight by march of 1940 though they weren't ready for service that wouldn't happen until may the reason for this delay was the defensive armament at that time of the war the hispano cannons were classified as secret materials and no relevance authority had been able to entrust any examples of the weapon for testing as a result of this the tests for the aircraft's defensive gun mounts had to be done with wooden mock-ups which of course didn't account for the gun's weight this meant that when the actual guns arrived their mounts weren't suitable for them and had to be hastily redesigned as a result of this the 223 saw little action against germany in the last weeks of the battle of france but it is notable for one particular mission at midnight on june the 7th 1940 an impressed male carrier variant of the 223 named jules verne flew deep into germany to drop the first bombs on berlin at this time the 223 was the only aircraft in the allied air forces that had the range for such an attempt in charge of the mission was captain henry dalier in berlin there was no blackout so confident was high command that the city wouldn't be bombed so it was not difficult for his crew to spot their target when they got close he instructed the pilot to fly low as if they were making to land at tempelhof airport they flew over it without incident and headed for tegel their payload was eight 250 conventional bombs and a case of 10 kilo incendiaries the heavy bombs were dropped from their bomb racks but there was no such provision for the smaller bombs and so the flight mechanic and bombardier tossed them out of the passenger doors by hand after returning safely and to much congratulation their mission was repeated several days later when henry and his crew bombed the heichol factory at rostock though it created a lot of noise the raids did little in the way of physical damage but the real intention had been the psychological effects though the effect was somewhat lessened as the german propaganda machine quickly moved into action and spun it as some sort of practice air raid aside from this the french heavy bombers saw almost no service over europe on june the 16th seven were flown to north africa for use against the italians however six days later the armistice between france germany and italy brought their combat duties to a halt the luftwaffe took the prototype 223 for research purposes and the other planes were put in service with the new vichy air force this lasted until the allied invasion of north africa in 1942 when germany moved to occupy the rest of france the jules verne met its end on november the 8th when the french resistance burned it to prevent it falling into german hands and the remaining aircraft under vichy control in algeria were destroyed during the anglo-american invasion and so that brings to a close the somewhat brief somewhat weird history of farming's often forgotten heavy bomber the source material on these planes is somewhat scarce and what i could find i had to mostly translate from french so apologies if there are any minor mistakes due to poor translation i also apologize if you can hear any crows during the background of this video as there are a bunch outside my house that are making a lot of noise today but i hope you all enjoyed today's video as always thank you all very much for watching and i'll catch you all next time goodbye [Music] you

Channel: Rex's Hangar

Views: 89,496

Keywords: war thunder, farman, farman f.211, farman f.222, farman f.223, nc.223, war thunder nc.223, farman bomber, french aircraft, french air force, world war 2, luftwaffe, italy, germany, raf, ww2 documentary, aviation, military, history, rare aircraft, weird aircraft, large aircraft, forgotten aircraft, interwar period, berlin raid, bombing raid, bomber formation, french aviation, maurice farman, france's forgotten heavy bomber force, rex's hangar

Id: 50U1UDQs_B8

Length: 16min 10sec (970 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 13 2022