The Development of French Interwar Bombers Pt 1 - When Greenhouses Go To War

Today we're exploring the development of French bombing aircraft in the interwar period.

Recommended reading:

Published Journal Articles

0:00 Intro
1:28 A brief summary of French Bomber development
7:08 French Bombers in WWI
13:09 WWI French Bombing Doctrine
18:53 Interwar bombers - Farman Goliath
27:49 Latécoère 6
30:47 Dyle et Bacalan DB-10
34:12 The Tactical Bombers - Breguet 19
39:18 Potez 25
41:55 A Shift In Aerial Doctrine
44:26 Lioré et Olivier LeO 20
49:15 Yet Another Shift In Aerial Doctrine
59:12 The "Battle-Combat-Reconnaissance Plane" Obsession Begins
01:03:16 Blériot 127
01:06:38 Blériot 137
01:08:20 SPCA 30
01:12:09 Bréguet 410
01:15:43 Amiot 140 / Amiot 143
01:22:05 "Heavy" Bombers - SAB AB.20/21
01:25:41 Bernard 82 "Repraisal Bomber"
01:28:22 Farman F.220 / F.222 etc
01:32:49 Bloch MB.200 Medium Bomber
01:37:15 Closing Remarks and Source Material

[RexsHangar]

F.A.Q Section - Ask your questions here :)

Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)

Q: How do you decide what aircraft gets covered next?
A: Supporters over on Patreon now get to vote on upcoming topics such as overviews, special videos, and deep dives.

Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.

[marcusott]

I love the Drach reference, to French pre Dreadnoughts. When hotels go to war.
👍

[kevting]

The French truly have a unique take on ‘offensive’ designs.

[maxo.]

Saw someone else make a spot on comment. The french designs make the entire roster of Blohm & Voss stuff look normal and aerodynamically sound - and that's truly a feat

[maddox]

Following the analogue with the French Predreads. "How can these visual crimes against humanity fly?" My question "How can those land? The earth rejects them".

[stephenrickstrew]

Visually distressing is a very polite way of saying “ they are hard to look at.”

[AndrewGivens]

The DB-10 didn't have its defensive guns in the nose; they were in the *conning tower* quite clearly.
Amazing! Many thanks for this vud.

[chegeny]

Thanks for delving into these exquisitely fascinating old machines. They look as though they were created by Studio Ghibli.

[davidfuller]

What is it with the French? First you have hotel battleships, now you have greenhouse bombers.

[liveliestawfulness]

These french designs remind me of the 'aircraft' I used to make out of old style Lego back in the 70s.

[hlynnkeith]

Have studied aviation history -- especially WW1 -- for 50+ years, but this is the first time I have heard of Amedeu Mecozzi. Thank you for the introduction. My compliments.

[landak]

You know, I'm learning French on duolingo, and just finished French numerals. And somehow I think their bomber designs came from the same line of thought that pronounces 77 as "sixty seventeen" or 94 as "four-twenty fourteen".

[perrydowd]

"... several prototypes which didn't get anywhere but did look equally weird."
What a unique combination of words. 🤔

[Dank_Lulu]

I like these longer videos, they're excellant to spread over my downtime over the course of a few days. And it's genuinely usefull to hear how in real time, the airplane manufacturers were problemsolving for the specific functions the plane had to perform; the tacticians were problemsolving in real time for what functions the plane needed to perform and the officials were problemsolving in real time how not to look bad in front of the public.

[mpetersen]

Preflight fheck list
Bomb load..check
Cheese..check
Vin ordinaire..check
Baugettes..check
Hampster taunts..check

[tommytwotacos]

I've loved planes MY WHOLE LIFE and just had no idea it was this freaking crazy until I discovered your channel. Thank you so much, I can't even describe how much entertainment and joy you've brought to my life.

[gapexx]

The naration since you ask was perfect on this, I applaud your decision to go on the fly with it, not scripted text.

[richardharden]

Hot take but a lot of these look beautiful to me, I cant help but close my eyes and imagine the amazing view some of these green house designs would allow.

[craniusdominus]

This is the long-awaited Dastardly and Mutley origin story

[ThreenaddiesRexMegistus]

They either look like aerial garden sheds or are rather beautiful art-deco influenced, and streamlined artworks. There’s no middle way.
14:01 Old-mate nonchalantly smoking a Gauloise amongst canvas, fuel, and other burny things, cool factor 110% - absolutely NFG, bloody legend! 👍🏻😁