Breguet Vultur

The Breguet Br.960 Vultur was a French prototype carrier-based attack aircraft that first flew on 3 August 1951. Only two examples were built, but the work done on them later proved useful in the development of the Alizé ASW aircraft.

The Vultur was a mixed-power design, combining an Armstrong Siddeley Mamba turboprop in the nose with a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet in the tail. It was a low-wing aircraft, with the wing featuring a swept leading edge and a straight trailing edge, and folding at the middle. The aircraft had tricycle landing gear, with the main gear hinged in the wings just inside the wing fold and retracting towards the fuselage, and the nose gear retracting backwards.

The Vultur accommodated a pilot and copilot sitting side-by-side in a framed canopy. A typical payload was a single 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bomb and eight rockets. It was fitted with radar in a pod on the right wingtip, balanced by a fuel tank on the left wingtip. A large search radar could also be attached under the fuselage.

When the Aéronavale lost interest in a turboprop attack aircraft, but was keen to purchase a new anti-submarine warfare platform, Breguet modified the second prototype as a demonstrator. Now known as the Br.965 Épaulard ("Killer Whale"), this aircraft was the immediate fore-runner of the Alizé.

Specifications (Br.960, second prototype)

Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1953–54

General characteristics

• Crew: two pilots
• Length: 15.35 m (50 ft 4 in)
• Wingspan: 18.70 m (61 ft 4 in)
• Height: 5.17 m (16 ft 11 in)
• Wing area: 36.6 m² (393 ft²)
• Max. takeoff weight: 9,800 kg (21,560 lb)
• Powerplant:
  • 1 × Rolls-Royce Nene 103 turbojet, 22.3 kN (5,000 lbf)
  • 1 × Armstrong Siddeley Mamba A.S.Ma.3 turboprop, 985 kW (1,320 shp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 900 km/h (487 knots, 560 mph) (turboprop and jet), 400 km/h (216 knots, 248 mph) (turboprop only)
• Endurance: 4 hr 30 min (turboprop only)
• Service ceiling: 13,000 m (42,640 ft)

Armament

• Bombs and rockets carried externally

See also

Related development

• Breguet Alizé
  

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• TB3F Guardian
  

Notes and references

• Bridgman, Leonard. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1953–54. London: Jane's All The World's Aircraft Publishing Ltd, 1953.

The initial version of this article was based on a public domain article from Greg Goebel's Vectorsite.