Farman F.140 Super Goliath

Farman · France · first flew 1924 · bomber

The Farman F.140 Super Goliath was a very large four-engined biplane night bomber designed in France in the mid-1920s. The prototype set several altitude records with heavy loads.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Mid-mounted, straight
E — Engines	4 × piston, wing-mounted
F — Fuselage	Upper wing held high above the fuselage by four vertical centre-section struts
T — Tail	Conventional

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Spot it by:

Large triple-bay biplane with unstaggered, constant-chord, square-tipped wings
Four W-12 engines in tractor and pusher pairs in cylindrical housings on the lower wings
Upper wing held high above the fuselage by four vertical centre-section struts

Four engines in paired nacelles on the lower wing and a very deep, wide-gap triple-bay biplane structure mark the F.140.

Specifications

The Farman F.140 Super Goliath has a length of 19.7 m (65 ft).
It has a wingspan of 31.4 m (103 ft).
Its maximum speed is 182 km/h (113 mph).
Typical crew: 6.

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

History

It first flew in April 1924, powered by four 500 hp Farman 12We water-cooled engines. In November 1925 test pilot Louis Bossoutrot set world altitude records with useful loads of 2,000 kg and 5,000 kg.

Variants

The F.141, a modernised version from 1930, had a nose with a gun balcony that added 1.17 m to its length. An earlier Farman BN.4 of 1922 also carried the name Super Goliath.

Where you'll see it

The prototype and two pre-production aircraft joined the French Air Force, followed in early 1930 by six F.141s. Concerns about structural weakness grounded all Farman multi-engined aircraft in September 1930.

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