The Sud-Est or SNCASE SE-2100, sometimes known as the Satre SE-2100 after its designer, was a tailless, pusher configuration touring monoplane with a single engine and cabin for two. Only one was built.

SE-2100
Role Two seat experimental tailless pusher touring aircraft
National origin France
Manufacturer Sud-Est (Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Sud-Est or SNCASE)
Designer Pierre Satre
First flight 4 October 1945
Number built 1

Design and development

edit

The SE-2100 was designed by Pierre Satre,[1][2] later the chief designer of the Concorde,[citation needed] as a response to a 1943 specification by the Vichy French Air Ministry for a two-seat touring aircraft.[2] An all-metal aircraft, it had a low, cantilever, straight tapered wing with 55° of sweep on the leading edge and 10.43° of dihedral. There were fixed leading edge slots and trailing edge ailerons but no conventional flaps. The wing tips carried large, rounded fins with rudder-like rear portions which only moved outwards; they were used differentially for yaw control and jointly as flaps.[3]

The SE-2010 had a short, blunt-nosed nacelle-type fuselage with a cabin which could be configured to seat one centrally or two in side-by-side, dual control configuration. The seats were just aft of the leading edge, with a baggage compartment behind them. Access was via deep, wide, forward hinged doors on both sides; to make this possible, a piece of the wing root leading edge was an integral part of each door. A 140 hp (104 kW) Renault Bengali 4 four cylinder, inverted, inline engine was mounted in pusher configuration behind the cabin and air-cooled via a ventral scoop; it drove a two-blade propeller positioned just behind the trailing edge. The SE-2100's fixed, tricycle undercarriage had pneumatic shock absorbers and mainwheel brakes; the nosewheel was free-swivelling.[3] At different times the undercarriage legs and wheels were unfaired or faired.[1]

The SE-2010 flew for the first time on 4 October 1945.[4] Despite demonstrating promising performance[5] and showing high manoeuvrability when demonstrated at the 1946 Paris Air Show,[6] no production followed, with the prototype surviving into the early 1950s.[7]

Specifications

edit

Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1948[3]

General characteristics

  • Crew: Two
  • Length: 4.9 m (16 ft 1 in)
  • Wingspan: 9.89 m (32 ft 5 in)
  • Height: 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)
  • Wing area: 15.11 m2 (162.6 sq ft)
  • Airfoil: S.T. Ae.230 (Abrial-3) at root, NACA 009 at tips
  • Empty weight: 518 kg (1,142 lb)
  • Gross weight: 800 kg (1,764 lb)
  • Fuel capacity: 144 L (31.7 Imp gal; 38.0 US gal)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Renault 4Pei 4-cylinder inverted air-cooled inline engine, 140 kW (190 hp) at 500 m (1,640 ft) and 2,400 rpm
  • Propellers: 2-bladed, 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) diameter wooden

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 226 km/h (140 mph, 122 kn)
  • Cruise speed: 198 km/h (123 mph, 107 kn)
  • Range: 500 km (310 mi, 270 nmi)
  • Service ceiling: 5,000 m (16,000 ft)
  • Wing loading: 52.83 kg/m2 (10.82 lb/sq ft)
  • Landing speed: 90 km/h (56 mph; 49 kn)

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "Satre SE-2100". T.W.I.T.T. (The Wing is the Thing). Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  2. ^ a b de Narbonne 2005, pp. 70–71
  3. ^ a b c Bridgman 1948, pp. 159c–160c
  4. ^ de Narbonne 2005, p. 70
  5. ^ Pelletier 1996, p. 11
  6. ^ de Narbonne 2005, p. 73
  7. ^ de Narbonne 2005, pp. 70, 73

Bibliography

edit
  • Bridgman, Leonard (1948). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1948. London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Co. Ltd.
  • de Narbonne, Roland (October 2005). "Octobre 1945, dans l'aéronautique française: Trois espoirs déçus". Le Fana de l'Aviation (in French). No. 431. pp. 70–75.
  • Pelletier, Alain J. (September–October 1996). ""Towards the Ideal Aircraft: The Life and Times of the Flying Wing, Part Two". Air Enthusiast. No. 65. pp. 8–19. ISSN 0143-5450.