Amiot 120

Amiot 120
Amiot 123 "Marszałek Piłsudski"
Role	Bomber aircraft
Manufacturer	Amiot
First flight	1925
Primary user	French Air Force
Produced	~85+6

The Amiot 120 was a family of French single-engine biplane bomber aircraft, built by the SECM-Amiot factory in mid-1920s. The only series-built variant was Amiot 122 BP3 medium bomber, other known variant was Amiot 123 long-distance record plane.

The aircraft was designed as a medium single-engine biplane bomber with metal construction and conventional in layout, with braced wings. The fuselage consisted of a frame of duralumin pipes while the engine was covered with duralumin sheets, with the rest of the aircraft covered in fabric. A fixed conventional landing gear, with a rear skid was fitted. A crew of three sat in tandem in open cockpits.

The first of the series was Amiot 120 BN2, a 2-seater bomber prototype, powered with a Renault 12Ma 580 hp inline engine (registration F-AHCR). It was not ordered by the French Air Force and only one example was built. More successful was the next slightly enlarged variant, the Amiot 122, of 1927, powered by a Lorraine 18 Kd, 650 hp engine. Its initial production variant was Amiot 122 BP2 2-seater bomber (registration F-AIUQ), but it entered production as the Amiot 122 BP3 3-seater bomber. A total of 80 aircraft were built for the French Air Force and five for Brazil.

Another variant was the Amiot 123. Designed as a bomber, designated the Amiot 123 BP3 (one was built) but the French Air Force showed no interest in it. At that time, Polish authorities were looking for a long-distance record aircraft for transatlantic flights. In 1928 and 1929, two modified Amiot 123 aircraft were built as a long-distance variant, with enlarged fuel tanks (first had Lorraine 18 Kdrs 710 hp engine, the second Lorraine 18 Kdrs 785 hp engine).

The last two variants, the Amiot 124 BP3 and Amiot 125 BP3 were bomber prototypes in 1931, fitted with Hispano-Suiza 18Sbr 1000 hp and Renault 18Jbr 700 hp engines respectively, but not ordered by the French Air Force. Some sources claim, that Amiot 121 with a Lorraine 18 Kd 650 hp engine and Amiot 126 prototypes with a Lorraine 18 Gad 700 hp engine were also built.

The Amiot 122 was first used as a long-distance sports aircraft. From 13 September 1927, the prototype carried out a 10,800 km tour around the Mediterranean Sea, from Paris, through Vienna, Beirut, Cairo, Benghazi, Tunis, Casablanca to Paris. From 3–5 April 1928, Lieutenant Girardot flew it across the Sahara, on the Paris-Timbuktu-Dakar-Paris 10,100 km route.

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