CAUDRON G.III FRENCH WWI BIPLANE

The Caudron G.III was a French wooden training plane, with a half-wing structure, with a fixed landing gear. The drive was usually provided by a single rotary motor Le Rhone with a power of 70 HP, but other power units were also used. The flight of the prototype took place in 1914, and in the years 1914-1918 serial production continued, ending with the production of approx. 2,800 aircraft of this type. The armament of the aircraft - in the observation version - was a single machine gun. Caudron G.III was created as a private initiative of the aviation company owned by the brothers Gaston and Rene Caudron based in Moullineaux, France. The new machine was characterized by the lightness of the entire structure (its own weight was only 446 kg!), Ease of piloting and it could easily land at field airfields. It was also cheap to produce. These features made the Caudron G.III one of the basic training aircraft of the French military aviation in 1914-1918. They were also used as battlefield observation planes, reconnaissance machines and even as light bombers. This machine was also appreciated by foreign customers and was produced under license, among others, in the USA, Great Britain, Italy and Belgium. From 1919, airplanes of this type were also used by the Polish aviation to train pilots. They performed this function until 1926.