History

The Bloch 700 was a French light weight fighter designed in the late 1930s to be constructed on non-strategic materials. Only one was completed before France was defeated by Germany in 1940.

The Bloch 700 was designed by Andre Herbemont (who had designed all the Bleriot-SPAD fighters since 1918) in response to a French Air Ministry request for a light weight fighter constructed from non-strategic materials.

The other fighters designed to this requirement were the Caudron 714 and the Arsenal VG.30.

The new fighter made its first flight on 19 April 1940 and made its next flight on 13 May.

It had completed about 10 hours of testing when Germans occupied the aerodrome and destroyed the aeroplane.

The second prototype with a number of modification was started but never completed.

This model represents the first Block 700 prototype in May 1940.

FGMMaster Dujin 1:72 kit completed by Leigh Edmonds in September 2011.

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Data

MODEL: Bloch 700

ROLE: Experimental fighter

TIME PERIOD: 1939-1940

ENGINES: one Gnome-Rhone 14M6 radial piston engine of 522kW

WING SPAN: 8.9m

LENGTH: 7.34m

GROSS WEIGHT: 1,850kg

MAXIMUM SPEED: 550km/h

CREW: 1

ARMAMENT: (proposed) two 20mm cannon and two 7.5mm machine guns

SCALE: 1/72

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