Written by
Michael Hyde

Loire 130 number 61 of Groupement HS2, assigned to the battlecruiser Strasbourg, flies on patrol over the Algerian coast, May 1940.

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Overview

The Marine nationale (French navy) issued the original Loire 130 specification calling for a three-place, catapult-launched seaplane for reconnaissance and general duties in 1933. It created a vigorous competition in which at least six seaplanes were submitted for consideration. The Loire 130 won acceptance and received a production order after successfully beating the C.A.M.S.120, the Lioré et Olivier H-43, the Breguet 610, the Levasseur PL.200, and the Gourdou Leseurre GL-820 in the fly-offs of the prototypes.

After the 130 first flew Nov. 19, 1934, Loire took some time to solve stability problems, which required the enlargement of the two outboard auxillary fins and delayed the production order until Aug. 1, 1936. The prototype Loire 130, a high-wing monoplane with a seaplane hull, boasted all-metal construction except for fabric-covered main-planes and tail surfaces. The wings folded for on-ship storage. A single Hispano-Suiza 12Xbrsl liquid-cooled, inline engine of 720 hp (537 kW) in pusher configuration on struts above the hull supplied power. A crew of three was its normal complement, but four extra passengers could be seated within the hull if necessary.

The Marine nationale ordered two variants in the first production contract: 40 Loire 130Ms and five 130Cs. Loire 130s with the M designation, an abbreviation of métropole (home country), were meant for service in European France. The C in 130C stood for colonie (colony), or the French colonial possessions, and this model differed from the M in having a strengthened structure, an OPL 38 bombsight that allowed shallow dive-bombing, and a larger radiator and other tropical equipment. Both models were armed with two 7.5-mm (0.295-in) Darne machine guns; one in a dorsal turret and the other a mobile nose gun and equipped with bomb racks on the forward hull sides, each capable of carrying a 75-kg (165-lb) G2 bomb, or an SM depth charge of the same weight. These production machines were fitted with Hispano-Suiza 12Xirsl engines that produced the same power as the prototype’s engine. Further batches of Loire 130s were ordered in 1936, 1937, 1938, and 1940 by both the Marine nationale and Armeé de l’air (French air force), making a total ordered of 150, although possibly not all of these were completed.

The Loire 130 entered naval service in 1938 and by 1939 was in widespread use. It equipped Escadrille 7S2 on the seaplane carrier Commandant-Teste, Escadrilles 7S3 and 7S4 on the battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg respectively, the training crusier Jeanne-d’Arc, and cruisers of the 1ère, 2ème, 3ème and 4ème Divisions des croiseurs (Cruiser Divisions). Shore-based Escadrilles 1S1 and 3S6 in metropolitan France also operated the type. In the colonies, Loire 130s were by 1940 operating with Escadrilles 8S2 at Fort-de-France, Martinique, 8S3 at Dakar, Senegal, 8S4 in Tripoli, Lebanon, and with 1/Commandement des bases du sud (CBS) of the Armeé de l’air in French Indochina.

After the armistice, the Loire 130 continued in service with the French forces. Sixty-two remained in naval service, and German permission was gained to produce 30 more at St. Nazaire before the plant changed over to Arado Ar 196 production. Most of the surviving Loire 130s were found in Escadrilles 17S, 18S, 19S, and 1HS (formerly of the Commandant-Teste), but one was in Saigon, French Indochina, and 19 were aboard various ships. Escadrilles 1HS and 18S were later disbanded; the Marine nationale in Dakar retained the aircraft of 18S and assigned them to the battleship Richelieu and Escadrille 4E. In November 1942, the catapults were removed from all French ships to make way for increased anti-aircraft armament, and the ship-borne Loire 130s redeployed to shore-based operations. During the Vichy period, three Loire 130s defected to the British: one from Karouba (Tunisia) to Malta; one from Martinique to the British West Indies; and one from Tripoli to Palestine. The aircraft based in Dakar remained in Marine nationale service throughout the war years, some in a flight of the 7ème Flottille d’exploration (Reconnaisance Squadron), but were progressively grounded after 1943 by lack of spare parts.

The type was used in a wide range of roles including reconnaissance, coastal patrol, convoy escort, naval gunfire ranging and observation, training, and liaison duties. It was an efficient and reliable aircraft. Four were still in use as trainers in 1947, and one was reported to be still operating in Indochina in December 1949.

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Variants

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Specifications

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References

Green, William. Warplanes of the Second World War. Volume Five, Seaplanes. Doubleday and Co., New York, 1962. pp. 35–38.

Morse, S., managing ed. Loire 130, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft. Aerospace Publishing Ltd., London, 1982. Vol. 10, p. 2378.

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