FSX-SE Can you name this plane?

[P_7878 6,605]

Folks, I came across these...today...and, found them interesting...

The aircraft had flown (briefly) for Eastern Air Lines...and, also, had worn the colors of American Airlines...

I've tried to hide the obvious markings, as much as, I could, here, but, not sure, if I was fully successful...🙂...

Anyway, please take a shot at naming the plane...(if you wish)...

[bernd1151 5,855]

Hmmh, interesting, could it be a Short?

[simbio 56]

The McDonnell 188 (Breguet 941)

https://www.rikoooo.com/downloads/viewdownload/51/936

Edited May 24, 2020 by simbio

[Chock 17,769]

As Simbio says, it's a Breguet 941. There were only a few of them made (less than ten including all of the preceding prototypes). The 941 started out as a militiary aeroplane but when the market for it was no longer there, it essentially became a cobbled-together prototype for a proposed pressurised variant (which would presumably have been the 942 had it gone into production). This would have been marketed to airlines and would have had a cylindrical fuselage. A tentative agreement was in place to have McDonnell-Douglas license build them in the US, but this fell through when no committed interest came from any airlines Us or otherwise.

With such a lot of power from having four turboprops on a small airframe, it was not economical but it did have good STOL performance and so the few which were built found a home in the French Air Force as paratroop/supply aircraft (since the military doesn't have to worry quite so much about the cost of fuel). Breguet were probably envisioning this role based on the (at the time development began) somewhat pressing need for STOL aeroplanes for the French military capable of operating in hot and high conditions, since the French at that time were trying to regain part of their old South East Asian empire, having lost it to the Japanese in WW2.

Unfortunately for the French, and Breguet, the recently-liberated people in Vietnam, and of course the communist Viet Minh, had other ideas, so the French were basically kicked out of the country in 1954, after losing the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Since the prototype Breguet 940 did not make its first flight until 1958, this meant it was a plane for a war which had finished four years earlier (for the French at least, it was just starting for the US), hence the attempt to turn it into an airliner in order to recoup some development costs because they had envisaged selling a lot of them to the military.

All this was one of the reasons why the US had developed the C-130 Hercules, which first flew in 1954, making the 941 fairly obsolete.

Edited May 24, 2020 by Chock

[P_7878 6,605]

Bernd: Good try...! Squared-fuselage....makes, you, naturally, think of the (utility and STOL) aircraft from the famous Short Brothers, doesn't it...🙂...?

Simbio: You got it!! Not sure, if you already knew or, as they say, Google was your friend...🙂...? Anyway, that's correct, so, congratulations...! And, extra "Brownie Points" for mentioning "McDonnell 188"...initially, at that time, it was only "McDonnell", before the merger would happen, with Douglas in 1967...(see, also, (interesting) Breguet timelines mentioned by Alan, below...)...the four "941S" variants would enter service with the French Air Force also in 1967...(serving till 1974...per the records)...

Alan: Good notes...as usual...including some rather interesting historical twists, which I was not aware of....yes, "hot and high operating conditions"....that was the key for sure...! In any case, it was a novel concept, for the time, that did not fan out, due to the multiple factors, you've mentioned...

[fppilot 4,371]

21 minutes ago, P_7878 said:

Bernd: Good try...! Squared-fuselage....makes, you, naturally, think of the (utility and STOL) aircraft from the famous Short Brothers, doesn't it...🙂...?

Simbio: You got it!! Not sure, if you already knew or, as they say, Google was your friend...🙂...? Anyway, that's correct, so, congratulations...! And, extra "Brownie Points" for mentioning "McDonnell 188"...initially, at that time, it was only "McDonnell", before the merger would happen, with Douglas in 1967...(see, also, (interesting) Breguet timelines mentioned by Alan, below...)...the four "941S" variants would enter service with the French Air Force also in 1967...(serving till 1974...per the records)...

Alan: Good notes...as usual...including some rather interesting historical twists, which I was not aware of....yes, "hot and high operating conditions"....that was the key for sure...! In any case, it was a novel concept, for the time, that did not fan out, due to the multiple factors, you've mentioned...

+1

[HighBypass 2,339]

10 hours ago, bernd1151 said:

Hmmh, interesting, could it be a Short?

It's what happens when a person is in a drunken state and buys two Airfix Shorts Skyvan kits and sticks them together in a cut & shut style to make one plane. Except full size rather than 1:72 scale! 😄