Bird Canary

The Bird Canary , is a French plane of great raid, which was baptized thus because of its color. This plane, drifted from the Bernard 191, carried out the first French crossing without stopover of the North Atlantic in the West-east direction, on June 13rd, 1929, controlled by Rotating crops, Lefèvre and Lotti, and with the passage to have traversed the longest way with the top of an ocean. It is also known to have transported the first Stowaway at the time of the crossing.

History

The “bird Canary” is a derivative of the standard Bernard 19, prototype drawn in 1927 by Galtier, engineer Aéronautique of the Société of the Planes Bernard, and built in 1928. This monoplane with high wing was planned for commercial flights on long outdistance and great raids. The Bernard 19 were classified in several derivatives according to their motorization, and those equipped with V12 Hispano-Suiza of 500 ch are called 191 GR. . They will be built with three specimens.

The second specimen, of color yellow, and baptized “Bird Canary”, is bought by Armand Lotti, then sub-manager of the Lotti hotel, street of Castiglione to Paris, and is prepared and developed by the mechanical engineer Raoul Leroy of the company Hispano Suiza which will accompany the plane until its take-off by the United States.

The attempts at Crossed of the Atlantic, already difficult in the East-West direction, are dramatic in the opposite direction, and of many deaths are to be regretted in 1928. Also, the French state decides to suspend its financings, and to prohibit these attempts. It is thus clandestinely, without papers or authorizations, under the pretext of a radio operator adjustment, that the Bird Canary takes off Paris for the England, from where they will be able to rejoin the the United States legally.

On Thursday, June 13, 1929 with 10:18 (local time), the plane, charged with a mixture of 3900 liters gasoline and 600 liters Benzole, takes off very laboriously of the long beach of Old Orchard in the north of Boston.

Little time after takeoff, a stowaway appears by the inspection door of the bottom of the cell by declaring " Young stag I am". It is Arthur Shreiber, young person American, who counts on his adventure to write an article or a book.

The crew, because of the weather conditions, cannot follow the optimal road, and is obliged to shift his trajectory towards the south, which increases the distance to be traversed. At the time of the last point, more in the south that estimated, the empty tank obliges the plane has to land prematurely on the beach of Oyambre close to Comillas in the province of Cantabrie in the north of the Spain on June 14th with 20:40 after 29h22 of flight and the longest way with the top of the sea (5900 kilometers). An error of navigation related to the conditions weather met have just saved the life to them, because the breakdown if not would have occurred in the golf of Gascogne off France. They will redécolleront the 16 for Cazaux, in the Landes, then for the Le Bourget, close to Paris.

The crew there will be received triumphantly, and will set out again with Oisean Canari for a round in Europe. In 1932, the plane is repurchased by the government so that it is preserved at Musée of Le Bourget.

Features

Scale: 17,30 m
Length: 12,80 m
Airfoil: 42,90 m2
Empty weight: 2.120 kg
maximum Mass: 5.780 kg (9 tanks, 2.980 kg of gasoline)
Driving: Hispano-Suiza 12 Lb of 600 ch
maximum Speed: 245 km/h
Autonomy: 5.400 km
Ceiling: 5.000 m

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