Bratu 220

infobox Aircraft
name =Bratu 220
type =Passenger aircraft
manufacturer =


caption =
designer = Romulus Bratu
first flight = 26 November, 1932
introduced =
retired =
status = prototype
primary user =
more users =
produced =
number built =1
unit cost =
variants with their own articles =

The Bratu-220 was a Romanian three-engine airliner aircraft of the 1930s, built in France, which remained a prototype.

Development and usage

The aircraft was designed in 1929 by a Romanian engineer Romulus Bratu, who worked in France. Quite unusual was its arrangement, with one engine in a fuselage front, and the other two in a common nacelle over a wing, in a push-pull configuration. A model was tested in a laboratory of St. Cyr Aeronautical Institute. Parts of the plane were made in works in Athis-Mons, and assembled in CIDNA workshops at Le Bourget airport.

The prototype was flown on 26 November 1932 and after tests, received a French airworthiness certificate. The plane had high useful load 4500 kg and could fly on two engines. In March 1933 it was shown to the French Minister of Air Pierre Cot.

Description

High-wing cantilever monoplane of wooden construction, with closed cab, three engines, and a fixed landing gear. Sparless wing, with slightly swept leading edge, straight rear edge and rounded tips, was basing on a geodetical structure of crossing ribs. Crew sat in a cab before the wing. Next and below in the fuselage, under the wing, there was a cabin for 10 passengers, with rectangular windows and access doors in front and at the rear. Conventional fixed landing gear, with a tailwheel.

Single Gnome-Rhône Jupiter 420 hp radial engine was in front of the fuselage, while two Gnome-Rhône Titan 230 hp radial engines were in a common nacelle on struts above the fuselage and wing, one of them was tractor, the other one pusher (push-pull configuration). All engines drove two-blade propellers and had no covers.

pecifications

aerospecs
ref=Ion Gudju, Gheorghe Iacobescu, Ovidiu Ionescu: "Romanian aeronautical constructions 1905-1974", Bucharest
met or eng?= met

crew=2?
capacity=10 passengers?
length m=17.47
length ft=57
length in=3⅝
span m=25
span ft=82
span in=
height m=6.55
height ft=21
height in=5¾
wing area sqm=83
wing area sqft=863
empty weight kg=4,400
empty weight lb=9,680
gross weight kg=9,000
gross weight lb=19,800

eng1 number=1
eng1 type=Gnome-Rhône Jupiter 9-cylinder radial engine
eng1 kw= 313
eng1 hp= 420
eng2 number=2
eng2 type=Gnome-Rhône Titan 5-cylinder radial engines
eng2 kw= 172
eng2 hp=230

max speed kmh=200
max speed mph=124
max speed mach=
cruise speed kmh=
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range km=
range miles=
endurance h=
endurance min=
ceiling m=
ceiling ft=
glide ratio=
climb rate ms=
climb rate ftmin=
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See also

aircontent
related=

similar aircraft=
*PZL.4

lists=
see also=

References

*Ion Gudju, Gheorghe Iacobescu, Ovidiu Ionescu: "Romanian aeronautical constructions 1905-1974", Bucharest

External links

* [http://www.airwar.ru/enc/cw1/bratu220.html Photos and drawings at Ugolok Neba site]