Arsenal VG 30

The VG 30 single-seat fighter built by the Arsenal de l'Aeronautique and designed by Ingenieur-General Vernisse and Jean Galtier was evolved to compete with the Caudron C.713 and meet a lightweight interceptor requirement. The VG 30 was of wooden stressed-skin construction and was intended to be powered by a Potez 12 Dc "flat-twelve" air-cooled engine rated at 610hp at 1000m and mounting a 20mm Hispano motor cannon. A full-scale mock-up of the VG 30 was exhibited at the Exposition Internationale held in Paris in the summer of 1936, but development was delayed by the non-availability of the Potez 12 Dc engine, and the prototype was eventually flown at Villacoublay on 1 October 1938 with a 690hp Hispano- Suiza 12 Xcrs 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine. The VG 30 proved faster than the Morane-Saulnier 406 and, in July 1939, allegedly attained 805km/h in a dive between 4000m and 2000m. Proposed armament comprised one 20mm Hispano- Suiza 404 cannon and four 7.5mm MAC machine guns. Development was abandoned in favour of the VG 33.