This Week’s Hints to help you along:
- An air racer that became a fighter plane.
- Scored 12 kills after it was withdrawn from service.
- Flew in active military service in 1949.
- Perhaps the only air racer that was considered underpowered.
So do you know what this aircraft is?
Post a REPLY below with your best guess!
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Caudron 714 – one of a series of not very successful Caudron fighters developed from the 710 racer.
Correct! The aircraft is a Caudron C.714.
Regarding how the aircraft scored 12 kills AFTER it was withdrawn from service, you have to look at the aircraft’s performance in the hands of the Polish pilots who had fled Polish as the invasion and joined the French Air Force. They were in the Polish Warsaw Squadron, known as the Groupe de Chasse Polonais I/145 and were stationed at Mions, France.
Early after the aircraft’s introduction, 35 were issued to the Polish pilots, Just seven days later, after numerous reports that the aircraft was underpowered, it was withdrawn from service — that was on May 25, 1940. With Germany’s attack on France, the Polish asked for other aircraft but, hearing that they would receive none, they flew the Caudrons anyway.
The Polish pilots proved tenacious. They lost nine in aerial combat and nine more were destroyed on the ground when the Germans attacked Mions, but in the air, they shot down the a number of superior aircraft, including three Messerschmitt Bf 109Es, four Dornier Do 17 bombers and five Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin-engine fighters.
That’s a Caudron 760.
Caudron C714
Caudron Renault C-710
Prototype of Caudron Renault light fighters series C-713 and C-714
Note: fixed undercarriage
Underpowered the Caudron Renault light fighter have no success