Caudron-Renault CR 770

Flown for the first time in November 1939, paradoxically some six months prior to the CR 760, the CR 770 employed an essentially similar airframe and armament, but was powered by a Renault 62616-cylinder inverted- Vee air-cooled engine rated at 800hp at 4000m. Ten minutes after taking off for the first time, the CR 770 suffered a broken crankshaft, and, before a replacement power plant could be delivered to Guyancourt where the test programme was being conducted, the prototype had to be destroyed to avoid capture by the Wehrmacht. The ultimate development of Marcel Riffard's series of lightweight fighters, the CR 780, was to have had a 500hp Renault 468 12-cylinder engine driving contra-rotating three-bladed propellers and an armament of two 20mm HS 404 cannon and two 7.5mm MAC 1934 M 39 machine guns, but this progressed no further than the design study stage.