Bloch

[cardboard_killer]

80 years ago today:

 

" At a meeting of the Comité de Matériel, it emerges that the Bloch MB-152 fighters being delivered to the Armée de l'Air are not capable of the performance promised. Instead of a top speed of 530 kph, the planes being tested by the Air Force are only managing 475 kph. This makes it slower than the Morane-Saulnier 406 which had its production phased out in order to produce the newer and supposedly faster Bloch fighter. A furious Ministre de l'Air Guy La Chambre launches an investigation and it turns out that Avions Marcel Bloch (later known as Avions Dassault) reported 530 kph though an “instrument error”, and the report explaining it had “somehow been mislaid”. Furthermore, an issue with the Gnome-Rhône engine overheating required use of a larger cowling, increasing drag. "

[Avimimus]

...and gunsights and propeller spinners delayed delivery ...and many aircraft were held back for modifications to their tails (if I recall correctly).

 

Yet, with 484 MB152/MB151 accepted for service at the start of the campaign they (will) represent the second most numerous French fighter and the best armed single engined fighter that France has,