Potez 15

Potez 15
Potez XVIIs in Bulgaria, 1928
Role	Reconnaissance bomber
Manufacturer	Potez
First flight	October 1921
Introduction	1923
Primary users	French Air Force Polish Air Force
Produced	1923-1926
Number built	687

The Potez 15 (also written Potez XV) was a French single-engine, two-seat observation biplane designed as a private venture by Louis Coroller and built by Potez and under licence in Poland.

The plane was designed in the beginning of the 1920s by Henry Coroller in Potez works. It was a development of a fighter SEA IV built by Société d'Etudes Aéronautiques, a former firm of Henry Potez and Coroller. A prototype was flown in October 1921 and shown at Paris Air Show that year. It was conventional biplane with a fixed tailskid landing gear and a nose-mounted 276 kW (370 hp) Lorraine 12D engine. The engine was later replaced by a 224 kW (300 hp) Renault 12Fe.

After a successful evaluation, the aircraft was ordered by the Aéronautique Militiare as a reconnaissance aircraft. The first planes were manufactured and delivered in late 1923.

Series-built planes were powered with Lorraine-Dietrich 12Db inline engine. 410 were built in France. The plane was built in two main military variants: Potez 15 A2 reconnaissance plane and Potez 15 B2 bomber-reconnaissance plane. A single prototype of a floatplane variant Potez XV HO2 was built. There was also an export variant Potez XVII of 1923, built for Bulgaria only, with the same LD 12Db engine.

Already in 1923, Poland bought a licence for the Potez 15 and started to manufacture them in Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów (PWS, 35 built in 1925) and Plage i Laśkiewicz aircraft works (100 built in 1925-1926).

A development of Potez 15 was Potez 27 (Potez XXVII),

Primary user of Potez 15s was the French Air Force, from late 1923. Main user became the Polish Air Force with 110 aircraft bought and 135 manufactured in Poland.

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