Spanish Civil War Republican Light Bombers and reconnaissance aircrafts

[gekho]

Fokker C.X

The Fokker C.X was a biplane scout and light bomber designed in 1933. It had a crew of two (a pilot and an observer). It was originally designed for the Royal Dutch East Indies Army, in order to replace the Fokker C.V. Like all Fokker aircraft in that period, it was of mixed construction, with wooden wings and a welded frame covered with aluminium plates at the front of the aircraft and with linen at the back. The prototype was built in 1934 with a Rolls-Royce Kestrel V engine.

The East Indies Army ordered 13 C.Xs, but they were soon replaced in the scout/light bomber role by the American Martin B-10s. Until the Japanese attack on the Dutch East Indies in 1941, the C.X remained in use as a trainer and target tug. The Dutch Air Force ordered 16 C.Xs, and four more C.Xs with Kestrel IIS engines. These four were later re-equipped with Kestrel V engines, because the Kestrel IIS was not very reliable.

Like the D.XXI, the C.X was set to be produced under license by the Republicans. A pattern example was flown in Spain, and a second was flown with a Soviet M-100 engine. This is the only picture that is know to exist of a Fokker C.X in Spain. You wont find any other.

[gekho]

The R-5 was developed by the design bureau lead by Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov as a replacement for the R-1, the copy of the Airco DH.9A which served as the standard reconnaissance and light bomber aircraft with the Soviet Air Force. The prototype first flew in autumn 1928, powered by an imported German BMW VI V-12 engine. It was an unequal span single bay biplane of mainly wooden construction. After extensive evaluation, the R-5 entered production in 1930, powered by Mikulin M-17s, a licence built copy of the BMW-VI, as a reconnaissance bomber. Further modified versions were produced to serve as floatplanes, ground attack aircraft and civil transports.

R-5s were also used by the Spanish Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, 31 being sold to Spain. These arrived in November 1936, and were quickly deployed on combat operations, but were found to be slow and were relegated to night bombing. Seven R-5s remained in good condition in March 1939. The aircraft was known as the "Natasha" in the Republican Air Force.

The R-Z or R-Zet was developed at the aircraft factory GAZ No 1 (State Aircraft Factory No 1) at Moscow as a development of, and a replacement for the Polikarpov R-5, the standard light reconnaissance bomber of the Soviet Air Force. Based on the R-5SSS, the most advanced variant of the R-5, the R-Z had a new, deeper, monocoque fuselage, with a sliding canopy for the pilot and fixed glazed fairing for the observer. The 544 kW (730 hp) M-17F engine (a licenced built copy of the BMW VI was replaced with the 611 kW (820 hp) M-34 engine. The R-Z first flew in January 1935 and was accepted for the Soviet Air Force in preference to the competing Kochyerigin LR, also an R-5 derivative. By the time production finished in spring 1937, 1,031 R-Zs had been built.

Its first use in combat was during the Spanish Civil War, where 61 R-Zs were delivered to the Spanish Republicans from 1937, where they were nicknamed Rasante. These were heavily used, flying in tight formations and using co-ordinated defensive fire to defend against fighter attack, while returning individually at low levels. Although many R-Zs were damaged by ground fire, complete losses were relatively low with 36 surviving to be captured by the Nationalists at the end of the war in April 1939.

[gekho]

The Vildebeest was ordered by Spain in 1934 and licence production of 27 Vildebeest was undertaken in Spain by CASA most receiving the Hispano-Suiza HS 600 inline engine, though some other engines were also used. Around 20 survived to fight on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War, some equipped with floats. A Vildebeest was the first victim of Francoist ace Joaquin Garcia-Morato.

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Good stuff.


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