Levasseur PL.8 L'Oiseau Blanc
Pierre Levasseur · France · first flew 1927 · light aircraft
L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird) was a Levasseur PL.8 biplane built for the first non-stop transatlantic flight between Paris and New York.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | Mid-mounted, straight |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 1 × piston, nose-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | Fuselage emblem of a skull and crossbones, candles and a coffin on a black heart |
| T — Tail | Conventional |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- Single-bay wood and fabric biplane painted white
- Fuselage emblem of a skull and crossbones, candles and a coffin on a black heart
- Jettisonable main undercarriage, with small floats under the lower wing
A white single-bay biplane with the French tricolour and Nungesser's personal emblem on the fuselage. It carried a crew of two in a side-by-side open cockpit, powered by a 460 hp Lorraine-Dietrich W-12 engine.
Specifications
- The Levasseur PL.8 L'Oiseau Blanc has a length of 9.75 m (32 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 15 m (49 ft).
- Its maximum speed is 193 km/h (120 mph).
- Typical crew: 2.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
Nungesser and Coli helped design the PL.8, based on the PL.4 built for the French Navy. In April 1927 it was shipped for proving tests, and it left Le Bourget on 8 May 1927 for the Orteig Prize.
Variants
Two were built, PL.8-01 and a second in 1928. Wingspan was increased to about 15 m from the PL.4 design.
Where you'll see it
The aircraft was lost during the attempt. Rumours placed it over Newfoundland or Long Island, but the search was abandoned after two weeks. Only its landing gear is known to survive.
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- Avia BH-29
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