Talk:Assignment – Paris!

Credits

Many thanks to DidierF of IMCDB who provided the screenshots. LVCDC 16:56, 5 July 2015 (MDT)

Languedoc : pourquoi faire simple quand on peut faire compliqué ?

... or "Why make it simple when you can make it complicated ?".
The story of the Bloch 161 is not the easiest one as France experienced several industrial merging during the late 1930's then disruptions linked to World War Two. Once free again, France tried to restart its aviation industry and the actual SNCASE 161 Languedoc seemed to be the right candidate to be the pride of the French commercial aviation rebirth. But five years of German rules led to a poor level of workers. So some airframes could be rejected during check test at the end of the assembly line. As some customers (Polish LOT airline, Air France) were in great need of new aircraft and in order to hold the delevery date, some airframe were bring back for rebuilt (sometimes for several months due to heavy defect) and replaced by some follower. As contracts were tighly negociated and included construction number, such 'evil' airframe were discarded and replaced by an healthy one. Then, construction numbers were switched or shifted.
Languedoc c/n 28 is one of this aircraft "with two airframes".
And more surprising, these two planes have had the same registration F-BCUD !
The real '28' became in fact c/n 30 and kept Gnome Rhône engines throughout its life which ended in July 1951. But this is not the aircraft seen in this movie.
The airframe which had worn c/n 28 in the skies, was in fact built under c/n 29 and was quickly fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines and made all its career with such powerplant. Air France used it a year before modified it for cargo purposes in 1948. Leased two months to Air Atlas, it was sold to the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) and dedicated to instruction tasks (CIET) between mid 1953 and spring 1955. It eventually ended in 1957 under the colors of Aviacion y Comercio as EC-ANR. The Spanish airline had used it until December 1958 when it crashed in a moutain in bad weather after 6301 flight hours.
These data are from the (excellent) book "SNCASE SE.161 Languedoc" by Philippe Ricco (LELA Presse). LVCDC 12:27, 2 February 2016 (MST)