Latécoère 28
The Latécoère 28 was a long distance monoplane aircraft designed and produced by the French aircraft manufacturer Latécoère.
| Latécoère 28 | |
|---|---|
| Three view drawings of Latecoere 28 | |
| Role | Eight-passenger monoplane |
| Manufacturer | Forges et Ateliers de Construction Latécoère |
| First flight | 1927 |
| Primary user | Aéropostale |
| Developed from | Latécoère 26 |
First flown in 1927, it had a fixed tailwheel undercarriage and an enclosed cockpit for its crew of two. When configured for airline use, the Latécoère 28 could accommodate up to eight seated passengers. It was produced in both land and floatplane configurations, being marketed towards the civilian market both as a mail plane and passenger airliner.
During its operating life, the Latécoère 28 became the main-stay of Air France's predecessor, Aéropostale, which heavily used the aircraft during the 1930s in its efforts to establish intercontinental air mail services and support French colonialism and French cultural influence during the Interwar period. Its pilots included famous poets and French men of letters, such as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Jean Mermoz, along with numerous veteran pilots from the First World War.