Breguet was a French aircraft manufacturer that existed from 1911 to 1971. In 1944, even before World War 2 had ended, the company was already designing the future of aviation in France. One of the designs was a double decker capable of carrying passengers, cargo and even large rolling cargo. The type would be called the Breguet 761 but this designation would only be used for the prototype and the pre-production aircraft 761S. The production model for Air France would become the 763 and the military version would become the 765. The biggest differences in these types would be the use of different engines, where the prototype used SNECMA engines of 1590 HP, the other models would use Pratt & Whitney engines with 2100 HP for the 761S, 2400 HP for the 763 and 2500 HP for the 765. This article is mainly about the 763 called Provence that was in service with Air France and the 765 called Sahara in service with the French Air Force.
From my personal collection: 2 postcards of the 763 of Air France
In July 2024, I had another assignment to photograph every detail of one specific aircraft, this time in France at the French Air Force base 105 in Evreux. The aircraft was the Breguet 765 Sahara, also called Deux-Ponts. This specific airplane was used in its military role from 1958 to 1969, by now this aircraft has been placed at the entrance of the Airbase 105 in a static role but has been neglected for a long time. A group has been formed to restore this aircraft and keep it in good condition for the future.
Link to the group website, click here!
The group has a few rooms in one of the buildings on the airbase that they are using for storage and technical work, in one of these rooms they have a magnificent large scale model of the aircraft, as can be seen in these photos:
Specifications of the 763:
Length: 28.94 meters
Wingspan: 42.96 meters
Height: 9.56 meters
Max. cruising speed: 390 km/h
Range: 2290 km
The specifications of the 765 should be a bit better as it had more powerful engines and wing-mounted fuel tanks for extended range. Only 3 aircraft still survive more or less, 2 of the 765 type and 1 of the 763 type.
An overview of my photos can be seen below:
I also found these old articles about the aircraft published in the 1950's:
THE END
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