Dewoitine D 510

1934

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D 510 N° 317

Two of the 15 D 500 series aircraft (the second and tenth) comprising the initial production contract for the new low-wing fighter monoplane placed with SAF-Avions Dewoitine were fitted with the Hispano-Suiza 12Ycrs (HS 77) engine as prototypes for the D 510. Heavier and longer than the HS 12Xcrs (HS 76) of the standard D 501 fighter, the HS 12Ycrs similarly catered for a 20mm cannon between its cylinder banks, and was rated at 775hp at sea level and 860hp at 4000m. The first of the D 510 prototypes flew (without the cannon fitted) on 14 August 1934, the second (with cannon) following on 10 December. Apart from engine, the D 510 was fundamentally similar to the D 501, the cannon being complemented by a pair of 7.5mm wing guns. In May 1935, the Ministere de l'Air placed an initial contract for 35 (later reduced to 25) D 510s, these being delivered from 9 October 1936. Seven more D 510s were then built for the Armee de l'Air as agreed replacements for a similar number of D 501s taken from the service's deliveries as part of the Lithuanian order. Follow-on contracts then called for a total of 80 more aircraft from which a contract for 24 D 510s from the Chinese Central Government was to be fulfilled. Other export D 510s were single examples to the UK and the Soviet Union, and two to Japan for evaluation purposes, and two, unofficially, to Republican Spain. These last had been the first two of a cancelled contract for Turkey and were ostensibly sold to the Hedjaz (Saudi Arabia). When it was revealed that the two D 510s had arrived in Spain, the French government insisted that their engines be returned to France. Eventually, both aircraft were fitted with M-100 (licence-built HS 12Ybrs) engines from a Tupolev SB bomber and allegedly saw some combat. Three Groupes de Chasse were still flying with the D 510 at the beginning of World War II, but re-equipped during the first months of the conflict. Two Escadrilles Regionale de Chasse in North Africa converted to D 510s in September-October 1939, flying them until mid-1940, and two escadrilles of the Aeronautique Navale formed on D 510s in December 1939 and May 1940.

The sole D 510A supplied for UK evaluation

Specification 
 WEIGHTS
  Take-off weight1929 kg4253 lb
  Empty weight1496 kg3298 lb
 DIMENSIONS
  Wingspan12.09 m40 ft 8 in
  Length7.94 m26 ft 1 in
  Height2.42 m8 ft 11 in
  Wing area16.50 m2177.60 sq ft
 PERFORMANCE
  Max. speed402 km/h250 mph
  Range700 km435 miles

3-View 
The standard production Dewoitine D 510A three-view drawing of The standard production Dewoitine D 510 (800 x 502)

Comments
Army Dicked, 19.12.2014 22:00

The dewoitine D510 was one of my favourite French Aircract of WW2. Although too old to fight in the ETO, they did serve in china against the Japanese. It's a stunning, beautiful mid 1930s air craft. I recall reading they had problems with the 20mm cannon, an early Hispano-Suza. It would jam if you shot it while Diving. The Rifled 7.7mm MGs would do modest damage to unprotected Japanese aircraft and would occasionally bounce off German aircraft. You have to forgive the French---the Socialists did everything they could to throttle the French Govnt to defend France. worse, was the explosive growth in air technology from 1934-1944 where bleeding edge aircraft became useless junk days into manufacture?!?

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Kristin High, e-mail, 27.07.2024 Army Dicked

A more sober view of France in the period of the Third Republic would be of benefit, if we are to assess where responsibility for the poor state of French armaments lay by March 1939 (when the Germans violated the Munich Agreement by occupying the remainder of the Czech State).

The failures were systemic and complete. The extremism of French political discourse allowed the same set of amoral political figures to run the French Government during the critical Inter-War years, and this poison of mediocrity at its heart killed France--not merely the desire for French workers to have a week-end or over-time pay, nor the Industrialists desire for modern factories and a stable banking system.

The French--right, left, and especially centre, seem to have chosen the worst possible course of action at every single turn, and they paid for it with a stunning national defeat that led to national humiliation and the degradation of a once venerated hero.

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zudum, e-mail, 13.02.2011 03:02

parece um bom modelo,gosto muito dos aviões da Dewoitine
pena que os trem de pousos não eram retráteis

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