Bernard H.V.120

Société des Avions Bernard · France · first flew 1930 · light aircraft

The Bernard H.V.120 was a French racing seaplane built to compete in the Schneider Trophy. It was a single-seat wooden monoplane with a 1,680 hp Hispano-Suiza 18R W-18 engine.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Mid-mounted, straight
E — Engines	1 × piston, nose-mounted
F — Fuselage	Single-piece horizontal tail set into the tip of the fuselage, with the fin integral with the fuselage
T — Tail	Conventional

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Wooden single-seat mid-wing cantilever monoplane on twin floats
Wing-mounted radiators covering about three quarters of the wing surface
Single-piece horizontal tail set into the tip of the fuselage, with the fin integral with the fuselage

A slim racing floatplane with thick, radiator-covered wings and a rear fuselage that carries the tailplane and fin as one unit.

Specifications

The Bernard H.V.120 has a length of 8.24 m (27 ft).
It has a wingspan of 8.65 m (28 ft).
Its maximum speed is 530 km/h (329 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Engine delivery delays kept it out of the 1929 race it was built for, and the first aircraft flew on 25 March 1930 from Hourtin. Development was difficult, since the heavy engine forced a redesign of the engine mount and forward fuselage.

Variants

Two were built, the first with a three-bladed propeller and the second with a four-bladed one. In 1933 the prototype was converted into a racing landplane, the Bernard V.4, which never flew.

Where you'll see it

It reached about 500 km/h in testing. The second aircraft crashed into the water on its first flight in July 1931, killing the pilot, and the project was abandoned in 1934.

Related aircraft

AircraftIQ — the aircraft field guide: 8,606 recognition guides, live overhead identification, works offline.