{{short description|French reconnaissance aircraft prototype of around 1930}} <!-- This article is a part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft. Please see Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout. --> {{Infobox aircraft | name = Wibault 260 R.2 | logo = | logo_size = | image = Wibault 260 A.2 Aero Digest October,1930.jpg | alt = | caption = | long_caption = | other_names = | aircraft_type = Long range reconnaissance aircraft | aim = | outcome = | related = | national_origin = France | manufacturer = Société des Avions Michel Wibault | design_group = | designer = Michel Wibault | builder = | issuer = | status = | owners = | primary_user = | more_users = | service = | major_applications = | proposals = | prototypes = | number_built = 2 | construction_number = | civil_registration = | military_serial = | radio_code = | requirement = | aircraft_carried = | flights = | total_hours = | total_distance = | construction_date = | introduction = | retired = | first_flight = S1 1930 | initiated = | in_service = | last_flight = | expected = | developed_from = | variants = | developed_into = | preservation = | fate = | predecessors = | successors = | concluded = }}
The '''Wibault 260 R.2''' was a contender for a French government contract for a long range, two seat reconnaissance aircraft, issued in 1928. There were eight prototypes in the 1931-2 contest and the Wibault was not selected for production.
==Design==
The French R.2 specification of 1928 called for an all-metal two seat reconnaissance aircraft, fast and with a rapid climb rate and large radius of action. It led to prototypes from eight manufacturers, the Amiot 130, Breguet 33, Latécoère 490, Les Mureaux 111, Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 580, Potez 37, Weymann WEL-80 and the Wibault 260. One of the terms of the specification required the manufacturers to use a Hispano-Suiza 12Nb water-cooled V-12 engine.<ref name=LearoN2/><ref name=Laero/>
The Wibault 260 was an all-metal monoplane with a parasol, cantilever wing. In plan the wing was largely trapezoidal out to blunt tips, with most of the sweep on the trailing edges, though it had a short span centre-section with an unswept leading edge and a deep cut-out in the trailing edge to improve the field of view from the cockpit. The thickness/chord ratio of the outer panels decreased progressively towards the tips. There was no dihedral. High aspect ratio ailerons filled the entire trailing edges. Wing and fuselage were joined by a pair of outward leaning, approximately N-form cabane struts between the outer ends of the centre-section and the upper fuselage. The wings were built around two spars and dural skinned.<ref name=Lailes1/>
Its fuselage was constructed entirely in duralumin, with four longerons which defined its rectangular cross-section. Its water-cooled {{convert|650|hp|kW|abbr=on|disp=flip}} Hispano-Suiza 12Nb upright V-12 engine was in the nose within a pointed engine cowling with bulges around the two cylinder blocks. Its shallow radiator curved around the underside of the forward fuselage at the rear of the engine. A {{convert|500|L|Impgal USgal|abbr=on}} fuel tank was behind the fire wall. Aft, the pilot's cockpit was under the wing cut-out with a forward view under the wing and equipped with two fixed machine guns firing through the propeller disk. The observer/gunner's position was immediately behind the pilot and was equipped with photographic and radio equipment, together with two flexibly mounted machine guns.<ref name=Lailes1/>
The empennage was conventional, with a triangular plan tailplane mounted near the top of the fuselage and braced on each side with a strut to the lower fuselage. Its angle of incidence could be adjusted in flight by the pilot. The elevators were narrow and rectangular apart from central cut-outs to allow operation of the trapezoidal rudder, which extended down to the keel and was mounted on a triangular fin.<ref name=Lailes1/>
The Wibault 260 had fixed, conventional steel landing gear with a track of {{convert|2.60|m|ftin|abbr=on}}, its wheels fitted with brakes. Upward sloping half-axles met centrally under the fuselage at the vertex of a transverse V-strut and, on each side, a faired, long displacement oleo leg and a faired drag strut, both from the lower fuselage longeron, carried the outer end of the axle. The tailskid also had an oleo strut.<ref name=Lailes1/>
==Development==
The date of the Wibault 260's first flight is not known but it was flying by mid-1930.<ref name=LaeroN1/> In early November 1930 Ribière gave a "trés belle" (very fine) demonstration of it at Villacoublay.<ref name=Lailes2/>
The S.T.I.Aé ''Concours des avions de grande reconnaissance'' (Long range reconnaissance aircraft competition) at Villacoublay began in April 1931<ref name=Laero/> and, unusually, lasted about a year.<ref name=PP/> The French government had paid in March 1930 for two Wibault 260s to be built for the contest<ref name=Sen/> but the winner was the ANF Les Mureaux 111,<ref name=PP/> so the Wibault did not go into production.
==Specifications== {{Aircraft specs |ref=Les Ailes August 1930<ref name=Lailes1/> |prime units?=met <!-- General characteristics --> |genhide=
|crew=Two |length m=10.38 |length note= |span m=14.939 |span note= |height m=3.619 |height in= |height note= |wing area sqm=30.345 |aspect ratio=<!-- sailplanes --> |airfoil= |empty weight kg=1800 |empty weight note= |gross weight kg=2570 |gross weight note= |max takeoff weight kg= |max takeoff weight lb= |max takeoff weight note= |fuel capacity={{convert|500|L|Impgal USgal|abbr=on}} |more general= <!-- Powerplant --> |eng1 number=1 |eng1 name=Hispano-Suiza 12Nb |eng1 type=water-cooled, upright V-12 |eng1 hp=713 |eng1 note= notional power {{convert|650|hp|kW|abbr=on|disp=flip}} |power original= |more power=
|prop blade number=2 |prop name= |prop dia m=<!-- propeller aircraft --> |prop dia ft=<!-- propeller aircraft --> |prop dia in=<!-- propeller aircraft --> |prop dia note=
<!-- Performance --> |perfhide=
|max speed kmh= |max speed mph= |max speed kts= |max speed note= |cruise speed kmh= |cruise speed mph= |cruise speed kts= |cruise speed note= |stall speed kmh= |stall speed mph= |stall speed kts= |stall speed note= |never exceed speed kmh= |never exceed speed mph= |never exceed speed kts= |never exceed speed note= |minimum control speed kmh= |minimum control speed mph= |minimum control speed kts= |minimum control speed note= |range km=900 |range miles= |range nmi= |range note= |combat range km= |combat range miles= |combat range nmi= |combat range note= |ferry range km= |ferry range miles= |ferry range nmi= |ferry range note= |endurance=<!-- if range unknown --> |ceiling m=5000
|ceiling note=operational |g limits=<!-- aerobatic --> |roll rate=<!-- aerobatic --> |glide ratio=<!-- sailplanes --> |climb rate ms= |climb rate ftmin= |climb rate note= |time to altitude= |sink rate ms=<!-- sailplanes --> |sink rate ftmin=<!-- sailplanes --> |sink rate note= |lift to drag= |wing loading kg/m2= |wing loading lb/sqft= |wing loading note= |fuel consumption kg/km= |fuel consumption lb/mi= |power/mass= |thrust/weight=
|more performance= <!-- Armament --> |armament= *Two fixed, forward firing machine guns and two flexibly mounted machine guns }}
==References== {{Commons category}} {{reflist|2|refs=
<ref name=Laero>{{cite journal |date=15 May 1931 |title=Le concours des avions de grande reconnaissance|journal=L'Aérophile|volume=39 |issue=V |pages=145|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6553563z/f18}}</ref>
<ref name=LaeroN1>{{cite journal |date=July 1930 |title=Le biplace de reconnaissance Wibault 260 R.2|journal=L'Aéronautique|volume=134 |pages=246|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6555317n/f266 }}</ref>
<ref name=LearoN2>{{cite journal |date=August 1931 |title=Le concours des biplaces de grande reconnaissance|journal=L'Aéronautique|volume=147 |pages=275, 281–2|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6554805v/f5 }}</ref>
<ref name=Lailes1>{{cite journal |last=Frachet |first=André |date=21 August 1930|title=L'avion Michel Wibault|journal=Les Ailes|issue=479 |pages=3|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65537464/f3 }}</ref>
<ref name=Lailes2>{{cite journal |date=6 November 1930|title=A Villacoublay|journal=Les Ailes|issue=490 |pages=12|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6553757x/f12 }}</ref>
<ref name=PP>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Concours des avions de grande reconnaissance |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k627333q/f3 |newspaper=Le Petit Parisen |page=3 |date=14 April 1932 |access-date=18 June 2016 }}</ref>
<ref name=Sen>{{cite journal |date=March 1930|title=Avions|journal=Senat|issue=124|pages=48|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6573035g/f48}}</ref>
}}
{{Wibault aircraft}}
Category:Wibault aircraft Category:1930s French military reconnaissance aircraft Category:Parasol-wing aircraft Category:Single-engined tractor aircraft Category:Aircraft first flown in 1930