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The Caudron C.23 was a French long range twin engine night bomber, flown in the last year of World War I. Post-war some machines were modified to carry passengers. ==Design and development== The C.23 BN2 was designed to be a night bomber able to reach Berlin with a bomb load. The French BN2 military category indicated a two seat night bomber but the C.23 had a crew of three. It had a much in common with the Caudron C.22 but was almost 50% larger in span, requiring an extra bay and more powerful engines. It was a large five bay biplane, with fabric covered, constant chord, unswept wings with angled tips. The upper wing, which carried the ailerons, had a slightly greater (4%) span and a smaller chord. There was no stagger, so the sets of parallel interplane struts were vertical; flying wires braced each bay. Pairs of V-form engine bearing struts, which supported the two neatly cowled Salmson 9Z nine cylinder water-cooled radial engines just above the lower wing, defined the inner two bays. The C.23 had a flat sided fuselage. There was a gunner's position in the nose, equipped with twin Lewis guns. A roomy open cockpit was positioned under the wing leading edge, with a separate gunner's cockpit behind it under a large, rounded trailing edge cut-out. This was fitted with another pair of Lewis guns and a further gun firing downwards through a trapdoor in the floor. A low, broad fin carried a broad balanced rudder which extended down to the keel. The tailplane, angular in plan and of very low aspect ratio, was mounted on top of the fuselage and its elevators had a cut-out for rudder movement.〔 The bomber had a fixed tailskid undercarriage, with mainwheels in pairs . Their axles were mounted on longitudinal bars attached to the wing under the engines by N-form struts. The Caudron C.23 first flew in February 1919, piloted by Jules Védrines. Higher power engines, the Salmson 18Z or the Hispano-Suiza 8Fb, were considered in April 1918 but the Salmson was not yet fully developed and trials of the Hispano led nowhere.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Caudron C.23」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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