Payen Pa 22
Payen continued with his radical designing, and planned to construct France's first jet aircraft (both a single-engine and a twin-engine model!) as a further development of the Pa 100.
Henri Mélot had designed a steam/oil ramjet engine and in 1935 Payen designed a twin-engined version of the "
Avion-Flèche" with Meteor/Me262-style under-wing engine pods as the Pa 100/1R - later renamed the Pa 260.
A single-engined version was designed as a new racer for the upcoming 1939 Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe race as the Pa 22/1R and construction was started. However the engine design failed to deliver enough power for flight and so the airframe was repurposed to house a Regnier piston engine as the Pa 22/2. The Pa22/2 was in windtunnel testing in 1940 when Germany invaded France and captured the aircraft.
The German's were intrigued by the design, and allowed design work to continue. The German standard of "V" for test vehicles was adopted, and the aircraft became the Pa 22 V2. Modifications were made to the tail, and further work done on redesigning the whole aircraft rear structure. The Pa 22 V3 design study investigated a more orthodox tail as already planned for the Pa 225 racer, while the Pa 22 V4 modelled twin tailplanes as planned on the earlier Pa 350CD racer design.
The Pa 22 V2 was eventually modified to become the PA 22 V5 with the Pa 225-style tail and a bubble canopy. The German authorities wanted the aircraft removed to Germany for further testing, but Payen procrastinated demanding additional engineering work to upgrade the aircraft with retractible gear, additional fuel tankage and variable propellers. While this work was being undertaken the Payen facility was destroyed by Allied bombing of the neighbouring rail yard.
Two additional models were designed; the Pa 22/6 which was to have V4-style twin tailplanes and possibly Ju52-style floating ailerons from the canard foreplanes (unfortunately I have not been able to find any illustrations of this model), and the Pa 22/7.
Continuing with Payen's futuristic designing, the Pa22/7 was to feature variable geometry, with the foreplanes pivoting back to connect to the delta mainplane.
Work on Payen's "
Avion-Flèche" series was not recommenced after the war, with Payen continuing with new designs.
I had been hoping to use Payen's designs into my Manchester AU, but unfortunately the complete lack of official interest from France and the inability of the Germans to make a success of the Pa 22 meant that I don't believe that any production model could have come from these designs - regardless of how gorgeous they would have been.
I have followed 1940 German aviation down the rabbit-hole and so been busy drawing rather than writing up the AU. Looking forward to finishing the events of Yugoslavia and beyond in the next week or two.
Corrected white shading