History

The Bernard 20 was a French fighter designed at the end of the 1920s.

Despite its speed it was not ordered into production because it was ahead of its time and French authorities did not trust its monoplane design.

The Societe des Avions Bernard designed and manufactured a number of aeroplanes in the inter-war period, with no great success.

The Bernard 20 was designed as a light weight interceptor fighter based on the Bernard V2 racing aeroplane of 1924.

The Bernard 20 was first shown as a full size wooden model at the Salon de l’Aernautique in Paris in 1928 and later used for wind tunnel tests.

The prototype made its first flight in July 1929 and, with its racing inheritance, flew at a speed of 280 km/h.

Although designed for the Armee de l’Air French authorities did not trust the monoplane design so none were ordered and it was abandoned after 18 months of test flying.

This model represents the sole Bernard 20 in 1929.

Adrien Roy 1:72 kit completed by Leigh Edmonds in August 2020.

Data

MODEL: Bernard 20

ROLE: experimental fighter

TIME PERIOD: 1929-1930

ENGINES: Hispano Suiza 12Jb V-12 water cooled piston engine of 300kW

WING SPAN: 10.80m

LENGTH: 7.45m

MAXIMUM TAKE OFF WEIGHT: 1,023kg

MAXIMUM SPEED: 280km/h

CREW: 1

ARMAMENT: two 7.7mm machine guns

SCALE: 1/72

KIT:

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