At the dawn of aviation the search of the best aircraft performance characteristics was established as a priority in creation of new airplanes, while the passenger’s convenience was hardly a concern. But with rare exception…
A "fired" bomber
During the First World War and afterwards the French company Lioré et Olivier created a series of bomber’s models quite competitive to Farman products. Their scheme was similar to Farman’s: multi-engine biplanes with motors on a lower wing. As in 1920-s many airliners were a bomber’s modification, no wonder that the company by Ferdinand Lioré and Henri Olivier decided to contend with its competitor in the civil aviation as well. An Airliner LeO-21 was created on the basis of the night-intruder LeO-20. Only a new wider fuselage with a rectangular body and a metal frame was worked out. Both the scheme and the layout of the airliner resembled Farman F-60. It was a classical 2-motor biplane with reciprocating engines installed in the balloon car on lower wings. In front there was a small passenger cabin for 6 persons, next followed an open pilot cabin and behind it there was a passenger saloon for 12 more seats.
The framework of the rectangular wings of the same size was made from wood, reinforced with interior braces and covered by linen. The undercarriage was double-sided, in twos wheels on each console closed by aerodynamic blisters and having a tail skid.
It also should be said that the constructors created the airliner with quite a big capacity for those days: 18 passengers. The reason was in fact that initially it was created for the most overloaded line in Europe - from Paris to London.
And there was a steward all in white…
For the first time LeO-21 took the air in August 1926. And since 1927 the airliner has already been put into operation by Air Union. The largest French airline challenged the largest British one, which used the airliner Armstrong Whitworth Argosy with approximately similar characteristics on the route London-Paris. This challenge concerned even the name of the line: Rayon D'Or (Golden Ray) against British Silver Wing. The French were superior to Imperial Airways airline not only in speed (LeO-21 covered a route for 2 hours 5 minutes), but also in comfort level what was quite a rare thing in those days. And a strong accent was made exactly on it. As a result more comfortable version of LeO-212 with a saloon-restaurant appeared in the same year. It was put into operation on June 30, 1927. The airliner had the number F-AIFE and was named Capitaine Ferber after one of the French aviation’s pioneers.
There were 3 private rooms in the saloon, each with a table and 4 arm-chairs. And the passengers were served by a steward in a white tailcoat.
A new version of Leo-213 appeared in 1928. This version had 12 seats in the main saloon, and the front cabin was intended for mails and luggage. There was a serial production of LeO-213 and 12 aircraft were built. The first copy of LeO-21 was remade according to this standard and renamed LeO-211 in 1929.
After reorganization of the French civil aviation in 1933, eleven airliners still in operation got into the hands of Air France national airline. However, the wooden aircraft have been already in out-of-repair condition by that time and they were mainly used for cargo transportation ever since. For the whole life time the aircraft have been flown in total 20,000 hours. Finally, the residual airliners were transferred to the French air forces in 1934. There they were converted into landing aircraft with capacity of 20 soldiers each, and one exemplar served for the Spanish republican air forces as a bomber during initial period of the civil war.
LeO-21 and its modifications have been working in the airline industry for not a very long time. However it should not be forgotten that it was a period of the extraordinary growth in aviation at that time. The new aircraft which were certainly better than their predecessors took the air almost every year. Nevertheless LeO-21 left its mark in the history of aviation. Many experts have considered it as one of the most comfortable airliners of 1920-s until now.
Vasily Lanskoy
Photoreport
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