F-BATE    SNCASE  SE-161 Languedoc                           (c/n  5)

                              

                                  The Languedoc was a development of the post WW II Bloch 160 design, the prototype Bloch 161
                                  having first flown in 1939.  The war postponed further development of this rather elegant looking
                                  craft, although the design was resurrected in 1945 and series production of some 100 machines got
                                  under way.  In fact, in seemed, for a while, that Air France would revert to its "all French" equipment
                                  mandate.  Clearly its ravished aircraft industry could not cope with such massive re-equipment prob-
                                  lems and hence the airline was forced to purchase ex military stock such as DC-3s and DC-4s. Of
                                  the production run of 100 machines, about half the number went to the French Air Force (L'Armee
                                  de L"Air) while took almost 50 of them. Originally designed to be powered by four Gnome-Rhone
                                  GR15s of 1,150 hp each, problems with this power plant meant that most Languedocs were fitted
                                  with Pratt & Whitney R1830-S1C3G Twin Wasps of slightly higher horsepower.   F-BATE was
                                  delivered in1945.  The Languedocs were operated on the North African route to Algiers and also
                                  on the Paris-London high density run.  The nice image above came from Air France in the late 1940s.