OK, so it's Mafia-sponsored. Presumably it's armored too......with a cocktail cabinet. That little putt-putt motor must have had a helluva job getting that heap of ironmongery off the ground.
From Wikipedia - Closed cockpit high-wing monoplane with a 450 h.p. Packard 2A engine. Span 60 ft with 1400 gallon gas tanks.[5] Single development aircraft for a planned 50-passenger transoceanic transport. Test flown in 1930 using water ballast in long range tanks, logging twelve flights[6] but found to be under-powered. Destroyed January 1931 hangar fire with engine and instruments removed.
I now know what threw me Moses....you said earlier that it was diesel powered, but looking at the Packard engine list the 2A-1500 was petrol (sorry gasoline) powered. I also misread the number of exhausts in the picture & thought it was a 12 cylinder W layout!
Packard were the first apparently to produce a diesel but it was an air cooled radial. Later on they made a turbo diesel V16, but dont know when!
Great fun this thread, gets one thinking along different lines! Long may it last.
Keith
It is the C.A.M.S. 80, and actually that motor in the pic was a Lorraine Orion W-18 of 650hp - it was later replaced by the Hispano 850hp engine - shown below, but I agree with Moses, it still looks underpowered..
This one served as an admiral's barge until it had a terminal pile-up at Cannes in 1938 (nice place to go...) Replaced by the much uglier Loire 130.
for Mike.
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