The Farman F.180 was a French designed and manufactured airliner, which first flew in November 1927. It was powered by a pair of Farman 12 water-cooled piston engines arranged in an unusual push-pull configuration.
Designed to seat 24 passengers, it was originally planned to use the aircraft on non-stop Paris to New York services. When this proved unfeasible, it was deployed on flights around Europe operated by Société Générale des Transports Aériens (SGTA), the airline owned by the Farman brothers.
Farman F.180 Video
Following on from the last video about the Handley Page Hermes, this time we stay in Europe for a look at the Farman F.180. This black and white film runs for around 40 seconds and shows the aircraft in action on the ground.
While the engines are running, it looks like the airframe is incomplete, as the nosecone does not appear to be attached. Still, the unusual push-pull configuration of the powerplant is well shown, which is interesting.
More Farman F.180 Facts
Curiously, the range of the Farman F.180 is listed at just 1,000km (with a 2,000kg payload), so it seems a little strange that they had ambitions to fly across the Atlantic ocean. You would have thought that calculation would have been easy, but then again it was the 1920s and aviation was still in its infancy.
Overall Thoughts
Just three Farman F.180s were built and all operated for the airline owned by the Farman brothers. That is probably why you’ve never heard of the plane, as I hadn’t until minutes before I wrote this. A full technical description made by the US Government, which is quite fascinating, is available here.
It seems that the airline SGTA was rolled into Air France upon that airline’s formation in 1933. Did the F.180 operate then too? I am not really able to confirm that, but it’s possible.
Had you ever heard of the Farman F.180? What did you think of the video? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image from NACA Aircraft Circular via Wikimedia Commons.
Never heard of this ungainly thing before, but I can just picture Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford stepping off of one on one of their Grand Tours of Europe. What a find!
Hahaha! Yes, I could see that as well!