Identification Help

[Burncycle]

Does anybody know what this is?

[Weaver]

The stripey fins make me think it's French, but otherwise, nope, not a clue...

[Thorvic]

Try asking on our sister Secret Project Forum website as they have a greater depth of knowledge of projects around the world and should be able to help.

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php

If French then it may be in the J M Cuny books of French Bombers or Fighters

[TsrJoe]

Hmmm, a strange one for sure, at first i thought Potez with the nose shape, but twin tailled (the turret is veery interesting too) il keep sifting the books

[zenrat]

The uniform the bloke on the right is wearing looks German.
What is the trimotor in the background?  Ju 52 or SM 81 without its dorsal turret?
It has a Russian feel to it despite the apparent striped tails.

[PR19_Kit]

It's got a VERY thick wing, hasn't it? And it must have been a production model as there's another one parked alongside it on the right.

[Weaver]

There's an interesting discussion about it here:
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?102619-Weird-French-Bomber-I-D

Spoiler though: they don't know either.

Likely suggestions are something realted to the Farman F.222, Potez 54 or Potez 65 series.

The aircraft in the background is held to be a Ju52/3m with a cover over it's canopy. However that doesn't narrow it down much since the French used Ju 52s after the war.

There's a suggestion that there's a second, possibly female, figure in the picture, standing side-on with her back to the drum shaped object on the far left. What this implies is debatable, and in any case I'm not convinced it isn't a case of pareidolia (human brains' false-positive pattern recognition) personally.

[Weaver]

Just a thought: could it be an optical illusion that the twin tail unit and skeletal fuselage in the middle of the picture are actually connected to the turreted front end? Might it be that, since this is an aircraft dump of some kind, the twin tail unit is the remians of a different aircraft and is actually some way behind the turreted front end, only lining up by coincidence for this photograph?

Evidence:

1. The cut-off between skinned and skeletal on the fuselage seems awfully neat for random damage and/or rot.

2. What would be the logic in deliberately stripping the covering from the rear half of a dumped aircraft anyhow?

3. The bottom of the skeletal portion doesn't quite line up with the skinned portion at the 'join'.

Not claiming this as conclusive, but it's worth thinking about.

Also, I'm not convinced by the Farman F.222 explanation any more: the F.222 had a proportionally much longer wing chord than that seen in the pic.

[Captain Canada]

Woah...you don't come across something that big, exotic, and unheard of very often ! Looks like there were at least wo of them !

[Weaver]

This is what I'm talking about re the fuselages:

[zenrat]

Looking at the angle of the fins I think there are parts of 3 aircraft there.  The front of the one with the big turret we want to know about, a stripped rear fuselage and the tail section of something else.

Looking at the aileron on the wing i'll agree it's a Ju 52 and I am also not sure that's a woman standing there.

[zenrat]

There's an interesting discussion about it here:
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?102619-Weird-French-Bomber-I-D

Wow, and I thought I was a pedantic dick!

[JayBee]

What I would like to know is, is that a multi gun turret on the top, and what was it intended for ?

[rickshaw]

I wonder why no one is considering the other nation that used a tricolour on the fins of it's bombers before 1940?  Italian soldiers/airmen wore "jackboots" as well, as beret/forage caps.

While I agree it may be a French aircraft, there is something about it that reminds of several Italian experimental aircraft pre-war.   I also believe the guns are larger in calibre than 20mm, more like 37+mm.

[NARSES2]

I've had a look through my books on French WWII aircraft and it's not in them. The caveat is that they only contain aircraft that entered production and those under serious development at the time of the Armistice.

Like Harold I don't think the twin tales have anything to do with the turreted front end. The angle looks wrong ?

The nose definitely has an Italian rather than French look about it in my view and the Italian's also had some interesting views on how to attack the expected waves of bombers in the 30's. If I remember rightly they involved having a command aircraft directing the attacking aircraft from above the action ? Mind you I think the French may have had similar views, and they did have a penchant for large cannon albeit usually in single mounts in open rear cockpits. So it could have been intended to attack a bomber stream from a stand off position ?

Assuming they are guns in a turret how do they elevate ? I Can't see any slots for them to move in ?

I think it's quite possibly an Italian experimental mock up, but I'd love to know