Loire 102

The Loire 102 was a 1930s French flying boat designed as a mail plane by Loire Aviation.

Development
The Loire 102 was designed to operate as a mailplane on the South Atlantic route between West Africa and Brazil. The prototype (registered F-AOVV and named Bretagne) first flew on 12 May 1936. It was a flying boat with a two step hull on top was a superstructure with a control cabin and crew compartments. In the forward hull was a cabin for four passengers, and to the rear were holds for mail, baggage and other cargo. It had a high braced wing on top of the wing was four Hispano-Suiza 12Xirs in tandem pairs (in tractor/pusher configuration). It originally had twin vertical tail surfaces but these were replaced with a single large fin and rudder. The aircraft had severe vibration problems which could not be fixed and Bretagne was scrapped in 1938 without going into service.