World War II Database

Contributor: Alan Chanter

ww2dbaseAfter buying a Short S.8 Calcutta and building four more under license, French manufacturing firm Bréguet developed its own version as the Bre.521 Bizerte. The prototype made its maiden flight during September 1933 and the type entered service in 1935. By the outbreak of World War II the French Naval Air Service had twenty-seven of these flying boats in service with four squadrons. This eight-seat maritime reconnaissance bomber was powered by three 900-hosepower Gnome-Rhône Mistral Major radial engines, and could carry an external load of 300 kilograms of bombs. Defensive armament consisted of five 7.5-millimetre machine-guns mounted singly in the tail, port and starboard forward positions and port and starboard waist positions. With the fall of France in mid-1940 the aircraft were transferred to Vichy units and when the Germans occupied Vichy France, in 1942, eight aircraft were seized for German Air Force (German: Luftwaffe) use in the air-sea rescue role.

Bre.521 Bizerte Timeline

SPECIFICATIONS

Bre.521 Bizerte

Machinery	Three 900hp Gnome-Rhône 14 Kirs or 14N-11 radial piston engines
Armament	5x7.5mm Darne machine guns, 300kg of bombs
Crew	8
Span	35.15 m
Length	20.48 m
Height	7.48 m
Wing Area	162.60 m²
Weight, Empty	8,470 kg
Weight, Loaded	16,600 kg
Speed, Maximum	243 km/h
Speed, Cruising	164 km/h
Service Ceiling	6,000 m
Range, Normal	3,000 km

Photographs