Couzinet 101
| Couzinet 100 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Large touring aircraft |
| National origin | France |
| Manufacturer | Société Avions René Couzinet |
| Designer | René Couzinet |
| First flight | 23 June 1933 |
The Couzinet 100 was a three-engined, three-seat touring aircraft designed and built in France in 1930. Two variants, the Couzinet 101 and Couzinet 103, were very similar apart from their engines; no variant reached production.
The Couzinet 100 series of touring aircraft was broadly similar to its contemporary the Couzinet 20 but was smaller, with a span reduced to 84%, carried three rather than five and had a fixed undercarriage. It used similarly low-powered engines and had Couzinet's characteristic fin, formed from the fuselage.
The Couzinet 101 had a one piece, low, cantilever wing, constructed entirely from wood, with a single spar which ran from tip to tip and a rear false spar interrupted by the cabin. It was plywood-skinned and thick at the root but thinned progressively outboard from below, providing a little dihedral. Chord was also large at the root, where the wing was generously faired into the fuselage. The plan became trapezoidal outboard with long, approximately elliptical tips. The straight part of the trailing edges were filled with long, narrow-chord ailerons carrying ground-adjustable trim tabs.
Two of the 101's three 63 kW (85 hp), seven-cylinder Pobjoy R radial engines, enclosed in NACA cowlings, were mounted ahead of the leading edges on steel frames isolated on rubber blocks and toed outwards. The third was in the fuselage nose. All had their own oil tanks and fire extinguishers; fuel was stored in the wings. The fuselage was a wooden semi-monocoque formed with frames and stringers. The enclosed cabin seated three in tandem, with the pilot at the leading edge between the engines and the two passengers behind. Each occupant had both roof and side windows. Behind the cabin the fuselage curved upwards in Couzinet's distinctive way, the upper side narrowing to form a very broad-chord fin; its one-piece, almost triangular tailplane was built into the fuselage, carrying very narrow elevators. Like the ailerons, these had ground adjustable tabs. The rudder had a rather pointed tip but was curved and full; extending down to the keel, it operated in a slight elevator cut-out.
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