Couzinet 20
| Role | Postal or touring aircraft |
|---|---|
| National origin | France |
| Manufacturer | Société des Avions René Couzinet |
| Designer | René Couzinet |
| First flight | October-November 1930 |
| Number built | 2 |
The Couzinet 20 was a low power, three-engined aircraft designed in France in 1929 for postal duties, though it could have been configured to carry three passengers or as a medical transport. Variants flew wth three different engines but only two airframes were completed.
The Clouzinet 20 strongly resembled the earlier Couzinet 10 Arc-en-Ciel but was markedly smaller, with a span reduced by about 40%. The smaller dimensions meant there was no longer access to the outboard engines in flight (both types were tri-motors) but the Type 20 was more advanced in having a retractable undercarriage. Both had Couzinet's characteristic fin, formed from the body rather than joined to it.
It was a low wing cantilever monoplane. Its wing was entirely wooden, built around two box spars and plywood covered, with a thick section which thinned continuously from root to tip. In plan each wing was trapezoidal, though long tips produced an approximately elliptical form. Long narrow-chord ailerons, each divided into two, were placed at the outer ends of the trapezoidal part.
The Type 20's two outer nine-cylinder, 30 kW (40 hp) radial Salmson 9AD engines were mounted just ahead of the wing leading edge with their cylinders exposed for cooling; the third was in the nose. Each had a pointed spinner and fairings behind the engine. The later Types 21 and 22 had more powerful radials, the five-cylinder, 63 kW (85 hp) Walter Vega I and the seven-cylinder, 71 kW (95 hp) Salmson 7Ac respectively. The fuselage was a ply-skinned semi-monocoque structure with close-spaced frames and stringers. It narrowed aft and the upper part rose upward to form an narrow vertical edge which formed the very broad fin; the fuselage underside curved upwards in parallel. A cantilever tailplane carried full-span elevators and a rather pointed rudder ran down to the keel via a gap between them.
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