| Potez IX | |
|---|---|
| |
| Role | Airliner |
| National origin | France |
| Manufacturer | Potez |
| First flight | 1920 |
| Number built | 30 |
| Developed from | SEA IV |
The Potez IX was an early airliner produced in France in the 1920s, a further development of the SEA IV that Henry Potez had co-designed during the First World War.[1][2]
The design mated an entirely new fuselage to the wing and tail structures of the earlier military aircraft.[1][2][3] This fuselage was very deep, nearly filling the interplane gap, and carried within it a fully enclosed cabin with seating for four passengers.[1][2][3] The nose area was carefully streamlined[2] with curved aluminium,[4] but other aspects of the construction were conventional for the day; wooden structures skinned in plywood (the passenger cabin) or fabric (the rest of the aircraft).[5] The pilot sat in an open cockpit aft of the cabin.[2][5]
The prototype flew in 1920,[6] and was followed by around thirty production examples that differed from it in having a larger tail fin and rudder.[2] The Compagnie générale transaérienne operated Potez IXs on cross-channel air services between Paris and London.[6] The Compagnie Franco-Roumaine de Navigation Aérienne flew these[5] on routes linking Paris to Warsaw via Strasbourg and Prague, and from Paris to Budapest via Strasbourg and Vienna, later extending its services to Bucharest and Constantinople.[6] Franco-Roumaine, and its successor airline CIDNA operated the Potez IX until 1928.[1][7]
The Potez IX S, a one-off modified version with wings of larger area,[2] flew in the Grand Prix de l'Aéro Club de France in June 1921 with Gustave Douchy at the controls.[8] Douchy was disqualified in the third stage of the competition.[8]
Data from "The Paris Aero Show 1921" 22 December 1921, p.842
General characteristics
Performance
