L'Oiseau Blanc

L'Oiseau Blanc (commonly known in the English-speaking world as The White Bird ) was a French Levasseur PL.8 biplane that disappeared in 1927, during an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight between Paris and New York to compete for the Orteig Prize. The aircraft was flown by French World War I aviation heroes, Charles Nungesser and François Coli. The aircraft disappeared after its 8 May 1927 takeoff from Paris. Two weeks later, Charles Lindbergh successfully made the New York–Paris journey and claimed the prize, flying the Spirit of St. Louis.

The disappearance of L'Oiseau Blanc is considered one of the great mysteries in the history of aviation. Many rumors circulated about the fate of the aircraft and crew, with mainstream opinion at the time being that the aircraft was probably lost in a squall over the Atlantic. Investigations starting in the 1980s suggest that the aircraft probably reached Newfoundland, and may have crashed in Maine.

The disappearance of Nungesser and Coli has an extensive legacy, and is referred to in many films and museums. A street in Paris is named after the aviators, and a commemorative postage stamp was issued in 1967. A statue at the Paris Le Bourget Airport honors the attempted flight, and there is a memorial on the cliffs of Étretat, from where their aircraft was last seen in France.

Levasseur PL.8

The Levasseur PL.8 was a single engine, two-seat long-distance record-breaking biplane aircraft modified from an existing Levasseur PL.4 carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft produced in France in the 1920s. Levasseur built the aircraft in 1927, specifically for pilots Charles Nungesser and François Coli for a transatlantic attempt to win the Orteig Prize. Only two examples of the type were built, with the first PL.8-01 named L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird), that gained fame as Nungesser and Coli's aircraft.

Design and development

At the Pierre Levasseur Company in Paris, Nungesser and Coli, working closely with Chief Engineer Émile Farret and production manager Albert Longelot, assisted in the design of the new Levasseur PL.8 biplane. Based on the PL.4 developed for the Aéronavale to operate from the French aircraft carrier Béarn, the PL.8 was a conventional single-bay wood and fabric-covered biplane that carried a crew of two in a side-by-side open cockpit.

Major modifications included the reinforcement of the plywood fuselage, removing two of the forward cockpits with the main cockpit widened to allow Nungesser and Coli to sit side-by-side. The wingspan was also increased to approximately 15 m (49 ft). In adding two additional fuel tanks mounted aft of the firewall, the three fuel tanks held a total of 4,025 litres (1,056 gallons) of gasoline.

PL8

PL8 or similar may refer to:

PL-8 (missile)

The PL-8 is a Chinese air-to-air missile (AAM) originated from the Israeli Python-3 AAM, (PL short for Pili (Pi Li, 霹雳), meaning thunderbolt). Experience gained from PL-8/Python-3 had helped China greatly in developing its next missile, the PL-9.

China's PLAAF was quite impressed with this missile, and paid for licensed production as the PL-8 AAM in the 1980s. The program was code named "Number 8 Project" (八号工程) and formally started on September 15, 1983. The major supplier of the missile was Xi'an Eastern Machinery Factory (西安东方机械厂) located in Xi'an. From March 1988 to April 1989, technology transfer to China was complete while license assembly and license built parts continued, and by the spring of 1989, the complete domestic Chinese built missile received state certification.

China has also developed a helmet-mounted sight (HMS) system for the PL-8. Elbit Systems DASH (Display And Sight Helmet) helmet mounted sight (HMS). However, it’s not clear that if this was part of the Python-3 deal or a separate deal instead.