Amiot 351 B.4

The first production version of the Amiot 340/350 series bombers. The prototype (designated Amiot 350.01) was a conversion from the proto-type 340.01 and was flown on 21 January 1939. The main difference was the change of the tail surfaces to double, the addition of a machine gun covering the lower hemisphere and especially the increase in the number of crew to 4 from the previous 3. The serial machines differed from the prototype by the cabin, which was larger in the serial machines (it contained an additional crew member) and was located symmetrically in the longitudinal axis of the machine (the prototype had it to the left of the axis). The crew was distributed as follows: bombardier in the nose of the fuselage, who also acted as navigator, behind him in the cabin on the back of the fuselage was the pilot, with him in the cabin was the gunner/radar operator controlling the turret with the gun firing backwards upwards, and last was the lower gunner sitting behind the bomb bay, operating the rear-down firing MAC machine gun (the same machine gun was also operated by the bombardier in the nose). The production machines received Gnome-Rhone 14N 48/49 engines of 1160 hp and a slightly reduced wing, instead of 22.95 m it was now only 22.8 m and the area was reduced from 67.5 to 67 m2. The Ministry of Aviation (Ministere de l'Air) originally ordered 20 Amiot 350 B.4s in 1938 for delivery by 1 April 1939, but three weeks later changed the order to 100 Amiot 351 B.4s. (with Hispano-Suiza 12Y-28/29 engines) and 75 Amiot 351 B.4. The second contract, which was also amended several times and was to be delivered during 1939, included another 30 Amiot 351 B.4. The third then added another Amiot (this time without the 351 version) on 17 June 1939. As the production 351 B.4s differed significantly from the prototype (for example, the weight increased by almost 1000 kg), further tests were undertaken with the first two delivered in the summer of 1939, from which further minor changes came out. The Ministry then changed the order again and a total of 880 Amiot machines were ordered in various versions, of which 140 were of the Amiot 351 B.4 type. This number was of course never reached, however, and after the first two pre-series machines, the next 5 were not delivered until January 1940, and by 1 March 1940 only 17 machines had been delivered. Moreover, 11 of them did not have a cannon - it was replaced only by the old 7.7 mm Darne machine gun. The twelfth machine had already been converted to other engines on the production line Amiot 355. In total, an unknown number of 351 version machines were produced, with the army apparently taking 17 of them, and several others were captured by the Germans at Le Bourget airfield in various stages (along with a prototype of the 354 series) Several other machines apparently went directly to the unit after assembly and are not listed in the documents, but even so, production does not appear to have exceeded significantly more than twenty machines. The Amiot 351s were the first units to receive the GB I/21 and GB II/21 which were armed with the Bloch 210, as the machines were scarce and deliveries lagged, they kept the original armament and conducted most of their raids on the older machines. The armament of these units was composed of both production types (351 and 354) and it is therefore not easy to determine the numbers of specific types in the units. This was similar for the GB I/34 and GB II/34 which began rearmament shortly after the German attack these flew originally on Amiot 143 but were withdrawn for rearmament after the famous raid on the bridges at Sedan. All units deployed their new machines although the crews had obvious difficulties with them due to lack of training, of the 19 losses only 3 were combat losses, the rest attributed to technical faults or crashes during take-off and landing.

fotky prototypu a sériové verze