Régnier Motor Company
Société anonyme des établissments Emile Regnier (En: Emile Regnier limited company) was a French aircraft engine manufacturer founded by Émile Régnier in the 1920s.
Régnier was a World War I flying ace. Postwar, he became the French agent for de Havilland. Some sources say he built de Havilland engines under license, including the De Havilland Gipsy in the 1920s.[1] He displayed a Gipsy III and Gipsy Major at the 1932 Paris Air Show.[2]
By 1934, he began building his own inverted inline engines as Régnier Motor Company.[3] Régnier designed an inverted air-cooled six-cylinder engine for use in a privately entered Caudron C.366 to compete in the Coupe Deutsch de Meurthe air race in 1934. The 217 brake horsepower motor was supposedly developed from a de Havilland inverted four-cylinder engine.[4] On 6 January 1934, one of his engines, mounted in a Caudron C.362, set a new 1,000-kilometer speed record of 332.8 km/h for light aircraft; this was six days too late to claim a 50,000-franc prize from the French air ministry.[5] On 27 May 1934, it took second place in the 2,000 km Coupe Deutsch de Meurthe at virtually the same speed.[6] The Régnier engine powered a Percival Mew Gull to victory in the Coupe Armand Esders in July 1935 at 302 km/h.[7] By 1936, the Régnier R-6 engine was being supercharged by a Rootes blower; six different engine types were shown at the Paris Air Show.[8] A supercharged inverted air-cooled V-12 Régnier debuted in early 1937, developing 450 hp.[9]
One engine was licensed to Allied Aviation of Van Nuys, California. It received a U.S. Type Certificate in 1939 as the Allied Monsoon.[1]
On 4 September 1940, Régnier died,[10] but his company continued and was subsequently captured by the Nazis after the invasion of France during World War II. It then became a supplier to the German military.[11][12]
During the Occupation of France and in the years shortly after World War II, Régnier designed and produced a set of three simplified four-cylinder inverted air-cooled inline engines of increasing capacity and power, the 4J, 4K and 4L.[13][14][1] In 1946[15] or 1947,[16] Régnier, now nationalised, was absorbed into SNECMA and the 4L engines, the most widely used member of the series,[16] became the SNECMA Régnier 4L. SNECMA continued to produce the 4L series until at least 1956.[15] The most prolific type to use it was the military Nord NC.856A, with 112 examples.[17]
Aircraft engines
- Régnier R1
- Régnier 2
- Régnier 4B (derived from de Havilland Gipsy)
- Régnier 4D.2
- Régnier 4E.0
- Régnier 4F.0
- Régnier 4JO[18]
- Régnier 4KO
- Régnier 4LO
- Régnier 4L
- Régnier 4R
- Régnier 6B
- Régnier 6GO
- Régnier 6R
- Régnier 6RS
- Régnier R161-01[19]
- Régnier Martinet[19]
- Régnier 12Hoo
References
- ^ a b c "Regnier (France)". enginehistory.org. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
- ^ Flight. 24 November 1932. p. 1103,1105.
{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Flight. 9 November 1933. p. 1134.
{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Flight. 24 May 1934. p. 510-511.
{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Flight. 18 January 1934. p. 61.
{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Flight. 31 May 1934. p. 531.
{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Flight. 5 September 1935. p. 238-239.
{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Flight. 26 November 1936. p. 561,576,578.
{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Flight. 20 May 1937. p. 505.
{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Franks, Norman; Bailey, Frank W. (1992). Over the Front: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914–1918. Grub Street. p. 211. ISBN 0-948817-54-2.
- ^ Spartanburg Herald-Journal, 4 March 1942, p. 1.
- ^ "British Bomb War Factories, Airdromes in Paris Suburbs". Albuquerque Journal. March 4, 1942. p. 1. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Engines at the Paris Show". Flight. Vol. XXX, no. 1457. 26 November 1936. p. 578.
- ^ Grey, C.G. (1972). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1938. London: David & Charles. p. 68d. ISBN 0715 35734 4.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b Bridgman, Leonard (1956). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1956-57. London: Jane's All the World's Aircraft Publishing Co. Ltd. pp. 432–3.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b Gunston, Bill (1989). World Encyclopaedia of Aero Engines (2 ed.). Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Ltd. pp. 134–5. ISBN 1-85260-163-9.
- ^ Gaillard, Pierre (1990). Les Avions Francais de 1944 à 1964. Paris: Éditions EPA. p. 63. ISBN 2 85120 350 9.
- ^ Parmentier, Bruno (2002-03-11). "Alliet-larivière AL-06". aviafrance.com (in French). Paris. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
- ^ a b Pozzoli, Serge (February 1974). "unknown". Fana de l'Aviation.
{{cite journal}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
