The Potez SEA VII , otherwise known simply as the Potez VII , was an early airliner developed in France shortly after the First World War.
6-663: The SEA VII was a civil version of the SEA IV military aircraft that Henry Potez had developed with Louis Coroller and Marcel Bloch as the Société d'Etudes Aéronautiques . With the end of hostilities, the French military cancelled its orders for the SEA IV and the company dissolved. Potez, however, believed that the design had potential in peacetime and founded Aéroplanes Henry Potez in 1919 to refurbish war-surplus machines for civil use. This soon led to
12-470: A revision of the design as the SEA VII. This differed from its predecessor in having an enclosed cabin for two passengers occupying the rear fuselage. The wings were enlarged to reduce their loading and therefore to allow for slower, gentler landings than the military aircraft had been capable of making. Cie Franco-Roumaine purchased twenty-five examples to use on services to Eastern European destinations during
18-478: The 1920s. Data from aviafrance.com General characteristics Performance SEA IV The SEA IV was a French two-seat military aircraft of World War I and the immediate post-war era. The SEA IV was designed and built in 1917 by Henry Potez , Louis Coroller , and Marcel Bloch . It was a derivative of their previous SEA II design, equipped with a more powerful Lorraine engine of 261 kW (350 hp). It made its first flight during
24-577: The first quarter of 1918 , probably near Plessis-Belleville . It was initially tested by Gustave Douchy , a flying ace of 9 victories, then by the pilots of the Centre d'essais en Vol at Villacoublay . The " Ministère de l'Armement et des Fabrications de guerre " (Ministry of Armament and War Production) soon placed an order for 1,000 machines, making the SEA IV the first Dassault-designed aircraft to reach production. On August 24, 1918, General Duval, commander of Aéronautique at General Headquarters foresaw
30-451: The initial order of 1,000 was cancelled, and in the end, only 115 examples were built. These C2s were used for a number of years by several escadrilles in the "Regiments d'Aviation" at Le Bourget . A further 25 were built by Aéroplanes Henry Potez as the Potez VII , a luxury touring aircraft, and one further example formed the basis of a racing aircraft. Data from French aircraft of
36-527: The need for two variants to equip the escadrilles at the beginning of 1919 : the SEA IV A2 for observation and the SEA IV C2 for fighting. In October, General Headquarters ordered the commissioning of a flotilla to operate these aircraft, and therefore required production to reach 200 planes per month during the first quarter of 1919, to have a force of 400 on hand by April 1. The Armistice , however, meant that
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