Caudron C.580

Caudron · France · first flew 1934 · light aircraft

The Caudron C.580 was a French advanced trainer intended to prepare pilots for the new low-wing monoplane fighters of the mid-1930s. It did not go into production and only two were built.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Low-mounted, tapered
E — Engines	1 × piston, nose-mounted
F — Fuselage	7 m fuselage
T — Tail	Conventional

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Spot it by:

Cantilever low wing straight-tapered with semi-elliptical tips
Large fully glazed single-seat cockpit mostly aft of the wing trailing edge
Wheels in large fairings on short vertical oleo struts attached to the wing spars

A small single-seat low-wing monoplane with a wooden wing, a Renault 4Pei inline engine and a conventional tail with a tapered tailplane at mid-fuselage height.

Specifications

The Caudron C.580 has a length of 7 m (23 ft).
It has a wingspan of 7.1 m (23 ft).
Its maximum speed is 320 km/h (199 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

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

History

It was developed from the Caudron C.530 Rafale and designed as a single-seat, low-powered but fast, aerobatic trainer with a camera in place of a gun. It first flew on 22 December 1934 and went to the Centre d'Essais de Matériels Aériens at Villacoublay in March 1935 for official tests.

Variants

The first prototype was slightly modified during 1935 and redesignated the C.581. The type was developed into the Caudron C.720.

Where you'll see it

It proved unstable at high angles of attack and had poor spinning characteristics, and was not recommended for military use. The second aircraft was destroyed in a take-off accident in May 1935, while the first continued to be used for aerobatic flying by Caudron test pilots into 1939.

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