Levasseur PL.7

The Levasseur PL.7 was a torpedo bomber developed in France in the late 1920s. It was a development of Levasseur's PL.4 reconnaissance aircraft and intended to replace their PL.2 then in service with the Aéronavale. It was a single-bay sesquiplane of largely conventional design, but incorporating safety features for naval operation, including jetissonable main undercarriage units, a watertight, boat-shaped fuselage, and small floats on the undersides of the lower wings.

History

The first flight was in 1928, and during testing, aspects of the design underwent fine-tuning, including engine choice and the design of the wing struts and tail fin. Eventually presented to the Navy, an order for 15 aircraft was placed in 1929. However, the Navy had reservations about the wing design, and ordered five of these machines to be delivered with their spans shortened from the 18.00 m (59 ft 1 in) original down to 16.50 m (54 ft 2 in) and built to different wing areas, and a sixth machine with its span shortened to 17.25 m (56 ft 7 in). These miscellaneous types were all put into service together aboard the carrier Béarn in July 1930. After testing, one of the 16.50 m wing designs was selected as the standard, and 30 new aircraft were ordered with this wing. Ten of the existing PL.7s were also thus modified.