Enormous, Beautiful, Deadly - the Latécoère 631
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
- A striking design from the Golden Age of the Transatlantic flight route, the Latécoère 631 has gone down in history as one of the most beautiful aircraft ever designed - but also one of the most dangerous. In today's video we take a deep dive into its history.
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Sources
Noetinger, J. (2005). L'aviation, une révolution du XXe siècle. Nouvelles éditions latines.
Cuny, J. (1992). Latécoère: Les Avions Et Hydravions. Lariviere.
Mossu, R. (1946). Les secrets d'une frontière. FeniXX réédition numérique.
Dawson, L. (2013). Fabulous Flying Boats: A History of the World's Passenger Flying Boats. Pen & Sword Books.
Nicolaou, S. (1998). Flying Boats & Seaplanes: A History from 1905. MBI Publishing.
19 FRENCH PEOPLE KILLED IN PLANE CRASH (1948, February 23). Singleton Argus (NSW : 1880 - 1954), p. 2.
0:00 - 1:41 Introduction
1:42 - 2:20 Channel Update/Demonetisation
2:21 - 5:03 Specification & Precursors
5:03 - 10:04 A Very Protracted Development
10:05 - 12:18 Post-War Service
12:19 - 16:49 Accidents and Crashes
16:50 - 18:33 Conclusion - Фільми й анімація
This was a hell of a video to research, went digging in a lot of places - but am glad to have got all this info consolidated into one place - hope you enjoy it!
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J'ai connu le dernier pilote du Late631c'etais Un voisin et je recherche son fils.jlou.Andre.
Well done. Thank you.
Wow, never heard of this one - but give the brave fr ench credit - it was a very bold time in engineering where bigger meant better - also they had to double down on capacity after already conceiving their design - politics killed many great airplanes of that time, not just in France.
Downloaded it for pc and mobile just for this channel.
What was the helicopteroid commercial craft that got in a vortex state and rolled over atop a manhattan building killing ppl on the ground and ending commercial helo service in the city to this day? I wanna say it was like a hybrid vtol to airfoil thing. Weird name. Would be a great topic for a vid! I'll support that.
Sad about the copy right issue... But a MOST interesting and well researched topic. Enjoyed it very much.
Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden for copyright breach.
@@ShamanKishThey knew too much.
Victim of being a pioneer. Beautiful looking plane though. Great video!👍🏻
Thankyou!
As a fan of big flying boats, particularly the Boeing 314, I'm surprised that I've never heard of this plane. It was truly beautiful! If I were a billionaire I would build a modernized replica of it. Good job on the video and thank you for telling the story of such a rare bird.
Check out the mighty Sunderland derived from the Empire flying boat, more designed for Coastal Command actions but used well after that .
I live 43 minutes from McMinnville oregon and am going to see H Hughes' massive wooden Hercules or Spruce Goose coined by its critics. It cost a whopping $350,000 000 in today's dollars.
Congratulations for the big research work ! this plane is special to me since my grandfather worked at Latecoere on the building and then maintenance of the 631, and he sometimes talked to me about it (by the way I knew nothing of the Boeing 314, just the opposite to most people here). It is a big pity that it lacked anti-ice boots, this is not understandable (even my own plane built 1974 has several). I learned a lot about that beloved plane thanks to your work. I had still pictures from my grandpa, but it is the first time I see videos of her. Little detail : the newspaper in the video is from from the victory of 1918, not the defeat of 1940, but I prefer it like that ;-) Big Thanks to you, continue the good work !
Thanks for the comment, why - that's incredible that your grandfather worked on the 631!
I saw this and had to comment. In the 1930s my great grandfather was a maintainer for the docks , as well as the aircaraft, for the Boing 314. They made stops in Maine for fuel and to load American passengers.
@@JosephDawson1986 Hi Joseph, our grandDads (or great grands) were lucky to work on such pieces of history ...
The fact they didn't have any de-icing or anti-icing systems on their aircraft makes me shudder. RIP to the lost.
Was icing even considered back then 🤔?
@@AwesomeAngryBikerWW2 bombers had it
Or Wi-Fi !!
@@kyleb3754who needs that ? Those planes flew so low that you could watch the landscape to kill the time.
@@pcka12also some types of fighter planes.
It is a pity that there is no film of take-offs or landings showing the deployment of the wing floats.
It is interesting that the 631 overlapped the Sanders Roe SR 45 which never went into service because the demand for flying boats had waned due to more airports being built for land based aircraft so putting the 631's safety record aside it would have been redundant anyway just like the SR 45.
the biggest issue that led to the 631 poor reputation was certainly the circumstances that surrounded the prototypes
N°1 had a short testing phase before the germans squirreled it away
N°2 never was properly tested and was used a the first production plane
in the context of a reindustrialising France, the testing phase was shortened to it's bare minimum, leading to host of issues to remain undiscovered until it hit the users (an issue shared by many state-run programs in the 50's)
Yes good points, I think the nature of the early development really handicapped the aircraft.
Why ppl don't survive plane crashes?
@@freddiecunningham2860 High speed against solid objects has never been a good idea for human beings
@@duglandpIn the words of a wise man ''Its not the speed that kills people, suddenly becoming stationary, thats what gets you.''
@@mesalab3781 Fair enough
I was expecting REXS hanger, the art looks sooo similar. He’s a little more in-depth but this is a good video as well
It's really cool that the Mars is still used today as forest fire fighting equipment
They are no more in service
Both surviving Mars were withdrawn from service and put up for sale some years ago. Hawaii Mars was flown to AirVenture Oshkosh a few years ago and put on water pickup and drop demonstrations, probably in an effort to attract buyers. I believe they now both been donated to museums. Almost certainly they will never fly again.
@@walterrudich2175 I thought they still had 2 out in BC
@@anareel4562one is for sale now on trade a plane. Waiting on my lotto numbers Lol
@@anareel4562 but they put them out of service in 2015 or so
Out of all the flying boats this is definitely the most elegant... 😎😎👍👍
This makes two plane in a row I've never heard of. Great work.
At last ! A video on this forgotten but beautiful aircraft.
Thanks a lot
That is a new one on me! Everyday a school day. Excellent.
An important video. This is an outstanding presentation which keeps alive the memory of a remarkable, if under-developed and under-tested aircraft. Many thanks for the time and effort poured into making this documentary. Very much appreciated.
Glad you enjoyed it!
A beautiful aircraft of which I knew very little about. Great presentation... Thank you very much.
The GR-2600-A2A engine was also used in the Boeing Model 314 'Clipper' and was a known oil guzzler at anything up to 7 US quarts per hour.
The aircraft may have looked pretty but its design left a lot to be desired. The loss of a prop from overspeed suggests that the aircraft was not fitted with prop feathering; Hamilton Standard developed prop feathering for the B-314 so it was available and proven technology. So were de-icing boots; Goodrich made them for the B-314 (Boeing made a big fuss about the 'world's biggest deicing boots' in advertising) so they could have been made for the 631. The big barrel-shaped thing between the two pilots is a ship's gyropilot ('ship' as in big metal thing that floats) . The Sperry A-1 gyropilot designed specifically for aircraft had been available since about 1920 and the A-2 was available from about 1932. Both the A-2 and A-3 (1937) gyropilots were fitted in the B-314. So why didn't the Latécoère 631 use deicing boots and an aircraft-specific gyropilot? I'm going to guess "it's American - we're got to use something that's French". Lastly, the B-314 carried almost twice the payload (75 passengers) for around two-thirds of the 631's range on two less engines (2700 miles). It also weighed in at 2.5 tons less than the 631 (41.5 tons gross). The French had the B-314 (and the British Short Brothers C-class 'Empires') as a starting point but (it appears) chose to ignore obvious safety features when designing the Latécoère 631.
The iced-up Latécoère 631 inflight shots are from MSFS?
Thank you for a well-researched and informative video. I thought I had it bad when researching the B-314 but compared to the Latécoère 631 I had mounds of information.
The most likely reason for the lack of any de-icing gear (apart from the fact that it was a very new idea) was that flying boats in general tended to operate at quite low altitudes (typically around 5000 feet), and these boats were intended to operate in Equitorial latitudes. It was probably thought that the risk of icing was very small and did not justify the extra weight of the kit.
Idiot if diplomatic. Racist if not.
Much guessing, and a lot of missing.
The big pylons between the pilots isn't the autopilot (they had a Alkan autopilot based on the SAMM autopilot made for previous bombers). The big thing in the middle is the navigator's compass (whcih also acts as pilot's backup compass) with some shared wing compensation commands for pilots. France hs autopilots since the 30s with Jeagers and lkn types available. Why would they not want a Sperry gyropilot when they used Wright engines and not Lioré engines (used early on the prototype) that had the same average power output. The Alkan autopilot was probably more adapted or more easily adaptable given they could easily call the engineers . (Example, same happened during the procurement process of sniper rifles in the 80s. British Accuracy Int and Verney Carron were both shortlisted but as they could repeatedly tale the Verney guy to the range to test the proto and tell him what they wanted modified (and go for beers after each session) while the Accuracy Int guys were not willing to move much)
The Ratier props had auto feathering, however they had resonance problem with the engines that vibrated too much.
I ackowledge that the almost inexistant deicing system was quite the problem.
@@jeandelacroix6726 I'm a bit late but thank you for the follow up and the additional information.
Fantastic work man.
A very well done video! Thank you so much
Wow, I realised you have the correct markings for the crashing aircraft at 13:54 F-BDRD . Kudos! Nice attention to detail
Been waiting for a video in this aircraft
The most beautiful flying boat I've ever seen. Sounds like the specs change may have had something to do with the later problems. A tragic story, well-told. New subscriber.
Thanks!
A Sunderland looks better
High quality video. Thank you.
What an amazing history, thanks for putting all this effort tomake it!
Damn the wings coming off is brutal
Wow, this was great! I'd never heard of this aircraft. Well done sir!
Excellent content about a fascinating (and dangerous) aircraft. Well done.
Very well done presentation; I'm a bit of an aviation buff (we were neighbors with Olive Ann Beach and the Wallaces who ran Cessna in the 1950's; and Rutledge who ran Boeing Wichita) and I never knew this story of the French flying boat. Incredible that one has not been preserved for posterity. I appreciate your work on this.
Fascinating. Good video and excellent narrative. Thanks Rmb
Starting a lecture with a Martin M130 is so AWESOME! Those were some clips I’ve not seen before.
Great job!
I'm an aviation enthusiast but I never knew about this beautiful bird thank you for the video
Excellent video, thank you!
Thank you for an excellent informative video! Very well done.
just found out about this beautiful sea plane because of so many reviews of microsoft flight-sim on youtube. thanks for reviewing it... 👍
Great video of a plane I'd never heard of before. Thanks!
An interesting story well told,
Great video!
Love the big , multi-engined prop planes… the more engines the better
Do X - 12 engines
@@Dilley_G45 absolutely. Love it
Well done. Great content. Thanks.
The newspaper headline shown at 6:10 did not announce the defeat of France in 1940, as narrated, but the defeat of Germany at the end of WW1 in 1918. Other than that, very interesting information on French aircraft technology in the 1940s.
exactly, you are right and I was about to write about that ! however it is more heart warming to read that than the newspaper of june 40... keep it unmodified 😁
Thanks for this great video. I've loved flying boats for a very long time. I wish these giants of the sea were still flying
Yes, imagine taking one of those old flying boat trips across the atlantic in that sort of luxury - what an event! Of course not in any of the ones that crashed :)
Superb in flight clips!😀
Your final thought was going to be my comment - that at least one should have been preserved in a museum. All such rare items deserve to be so memorialized.
Great video! You definitely did a lot of research and it's cool learning about a lesser-known plane like this. Keep up the great videos!
Appreciate that, thankyou!
Amazing Story - Quite Well Presented !
Very interesting story... Just goes to show the high cost of advancing aircraft technology in the earlier days.
Thank you for posting...
Russ
Thanks for this Latecoere video!
Thankyou, appreciate that!
Very interesting. Thank you for producing this. I've always been fascinated by flying boats ,particularly this one as it looked very elegant. Sadly, the old saying that if it looked right then it flew right clearly didn't working this case !
6:25 strangely enough, this picture of a SE200 dates from 59-60 judging by the Renault 4cv and Dauphine clearly visible parked under the left wing.
Anyway, kudos for this video, the Laté 631 being one of my all time favourite planes, certainly one of the most beautiful ever, even with a fate on a par with the sadly infamous British "Empire of the Clouds" R101 airship.
Btw, kudos for your excellent pronunciation of French names (at the one and only exception of Amphitrite to be pronunced /AmphitrEEt/ ): it is such a rare feat with English spoken videos.
But being a Greek, I guess you certainly know something about languages. As said from a retired translator and interpreter.🤗
Thanks for the info, and appreciate the kind words - means a lot! Should have known to say Amphirite like that… ah well, next time! 😁
Good stuff, well researched, well presented, well edited. Liked and subbed, looking forward to more!
Thankyou!
WOW this is a huge work!! Nice job, I have learned a lot here. Thx
Glad it was helpful!
Very interesting. I never knew about this aircraft until now.
I never even knew this aircraft existed! So beautiful, it was, and now has gone the way of the PBM Mariner. (Though at least there exists one non-flying example of the Mariner in a museum.)
This reminds me of the Howard Hughes Spruce Goose. But in metal. You should compare size.
Very well done.
Excellent French pronunciation. ❤and a very nice voice too.
Thankyou!
Great video, subscribed.
Fantastic video, very very much appreciate all your hard work. Sorry about the copyright issue 😕
Fine documentary
Fascinating. I consider myself an airplane buff, but I've never even heard of this one.
Thanks!
Thankyou so much!
Fascinating documentary.
Sad about the copy right issue... Enjoyed it very much.
New subscribed. Thanks.
A few years ago, one was found at the bottom of a lake in Québec.
She was a beautiful bird. I am sure there must be photos of the interior!
This was an interesting aircraft I did not know much about until it was added to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 as an add-on for sale. Your video adds to my knowledge of an aircraft that might have been in wider use were it not for WWII, then it was made obsolete by the DC6 and Lockheed Constellation. I have flown across the Atlantic 16 times as an air passenger, the Pacific twice and the Caribbean four times, always thinking of these old aircraft as I flew in jet aircraft and their contribution to aviation.
Like the Hindenburg, there were tragedies, but civilian aviation has become so much safer over time I think of these tragedies in context and those like you who create videos teach about that context which I avoided during 500,000 miles of business travel and 100,000 miles of personal travel.
I found more danger on the ground, as they say, although when I learned to fly in '06 I realized the importance of the pilot in an in-flight emergency, I have been in ground aircraft emergencies and one low fuel in flight emergency because of fog, but I felt calm, knowing I was in the hands of fate, and knowing fate can sometimes keep us calm in a vehicle emergency.
very interesting and well done vid , just subscribed :)
tremendous channel!
Excellent.....
Well done
Never heard of it.....but I have now, thanks to this excellent vid.....well researched and narrated, an absorbing insight int, for me, the Aircraft That Never Was. i can't agree that it was 'beautiful; the nose reminded me of Jimmy 'Schnozzola' Durante!...11/10.
Glad you enjoyed it! It appears the looks are a bit more divisive than I thought!
the nose reminds me my Beech Baron 58 so I love it !
Very nice
Looked the part, but sadly never lived up to its good looks. Having no de-icing seems like madness today. So many shortcuts were probably taken in building this aircraft. Interesting video!
It is indeed sad to think that no example survives but it suffered the same fate as the Boeing 314, i.e none still exists. There is a full sized replica of the fuselage of one at a museum in Foynes, Ireland
That is one of the coolest planes I've ever seen. I love the nose!!
Hope everything works out okay with the complaint you do good work.
It went down in history as one of the most beautiful designs, and it also just went down.
A beautiful looking thing that - huge!
Well-researched, well-outlined and very well-presented. Also, excellent French pronunciation. Liked and subscribed!
Thank you very much!
Yip your "French" pronounciations were not merely good but were beauitful even though I don't speak French myself!! Lovely language but still making my mind up on the people themselves!! (ugh)
Just discovered your channel. It has great potential. The amount of information you provide hits about the right note.
Would you consider doing some more modern aircraft as well. I know Aircraft like Concorde, SR71, Airbus A380 have been done many times but your style lends itself to adding another facet to those stories. A bit like different singers covering the same song. All have their merit.
The Concorde is unmatched in so many ways not just raw speed but what had to be invented to do that. How many planes even today do you know of can fly you at Mach two in the clothes you are wearing. If anything planes have largely stagnated except in areas of fuel economy and noise levels.
If Concorde was a 'quiet' aircraft it would still be flying.
Most interesting. Didn`t know abt. this masterpiece.
Thanks for an awesome video! This was a new aircraft to me when it released for Microsoft Flight Sim a couple of months ago, it's an absolute beauty in the sim ans incredible value at 10-15 bucks. This video adds to the fascination, l appreciate the depth of research you did!!!
Thankyou, that’s very kind! I agree, it’s really awesome to see such an aircraft come to MSFS
Freaking amazing that they were able to get the aluminum that they needed to complete the project during 1942. That's probably half a dozen bf-109 fuselages represented in the wing spar alone there.
There is a MSFS latecoere now. Looks good
Watched from Old Harbour Jamaica.
The French certainly had a predilection for massive flying boats: the biplane Breguet 521 Bizerte, span 115'; Breguet 730, span 132'; Latécoère 302, span 144'; Latécoère 521-523, span 161'; Latécoère 611, span 133'; Potez-C.A.M.S.141, span 134'; Sud-Est LeO H-246.1, span 104'; Sud-Est LeO H-470, span 104'. As a long-time fan of all things that could float 'n' fly, I was fascinated by this video. How I would have loved to have flown in one of the great flying boats of the time, well, not this one. Many thanks for the work you did on this little known craft. Perhaps you could do one on the Loire 130, perhaps the most widely used French wartime flying boat.
A well rounded video, very enjoying watch. The reenacted part of the iced-wing crash was ... well, chilling. (Pun not intended!) Great french voice acting here.
Also the development context is very interesting. I'd not heard of the SE.200 Amphitrite before. I must say, aesthetically that one is even more attractive to me!
Thanks! I also have to admit the SE.200 is a bit more cool looking.
The Amphorite was the aircraft that transported Film stars to the first post war Cannes film festival.
The Lat. was an incredibly elegant flying boat. The Flight deck was huge like an item from a Jules Vern story.
Very interesting video, first time I've heard of the Latecoere flying boat. I often wonder if seaplanes would survive today with new technologiew?
I hate how UA-cam puts copy right down it destroys hard working people like yourself I'll like and subscribe just for that to but I really like your videos very informative and interesting and always well researched great work
Thankyou!
Thought it was odd -- picture of a huge marine plane and the words Deep Dive Aviation ! !
Wow! I subscribed because of this video.
Glad to hear it!
your channel and rex hangar are both interesting to be honest
yes, I would have liked to have seen this behemoth. scary to think something that huge being able to take off let alone stay in the air.
What a beautiful plane!
I bet that plane had shocking blind spot issues too.
Thankyou for such an interesting post. There are photos of the salvaged SE200 hulk, at Marignane I believe, as late as 1965! Oh for a model. FRSIN made one in 1/144, but their site lists it as not available.
Very interesting, never heard of this plane. Too bad there are none in museums. I got to see the Spruce Goose one when it was in Long Beach, California. Also impressive.