Société Provençale de Constructions Aéronautiques

Société Provençale de Constructions Aéronautiques

Industry	Aeronautics, defence
Fate	Merged
Successor	SNCASE
Founded	France (June 12, 1925)
Founder	Georges Philippar
Defunct	February 1, 1937
Headquarters	Marseille, France
Products	Aircraft
Parent	Société Provençale de Construction Navale

The SPCA 30, an ambitious project of the company that did not go into production.

The Société Provençale de Constructions Aéronautiques (SPCA) was an aircraft manufacturing company based in France, with its head office in Paris and its workshop in La Ciotat, Marseille.^[1]

History

Founded by Georges Philippar in 1925, SPCA began as a subsidiary venture of SPCN (Société Provençale de Constructions Navales) shipbuilding company. Initially this aircraft builder was known particularly for its seaplanes.

None of the aircraft made by SPCA was built in large numbers. Part of them never even made it past the prototype stage, such as the SPCA Paulhan-Pillard T3, the first all-metal seaplane in France, built by Louis Paulhan and engineer Pillard in 1928.^[2]

The twin-engined SPCA Hermès built in 1930, as well as small planes named avions "de police coloniale", built until 1934, are developments about which there are almost no data.^[1]

In 1936 SPCA was nationalized^[3] and merged in 1937 with Lioré et Olivier, Potez, CAMS and Romano in order to form the Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Sud-Est (SNCASE).^[4]

List of aircraft

• SPCA 10
• SPCA 20
• SPCA 30. A twin boom prototype designed by SPCA in order to meet the requirements of the Technical Aeronautic Service ( Service Technique de L'Aéronautique ) of the French government towards the end of the 1920s for a light bomber and reconnaissance plane type designated as Multiplace de Combat.^[5] Only two units of this plane were built which were ignored in favor of the competing Amiot 143. Other Multiplace de Combat plane prototypes built by other companies at the time such as the Blériot 137 and the Breguet 410 underwent a similar fate as the SPCA 30.^[6]
• SPCA 40T
• SPCA 60T
• SPCA 80
• SPCA 90
• SPCA Météore 63
• SPCA 218

References

1. La S.P.C.A.
2. SPCA Paulhan-Pillard T3 Picture
3. Il y a 75 ans, les nationalisations de l’aéronautique française
4. Hartmann, Gérard (2005-01-05), Les réalisations de la SNCASE (PDF) (in French), retrieved 2009-07-15, Alors qu’on ne sait pas très clairement si les sociétés nationales sont des « usines de production de guerre » sans indépendance et sans bureau d'études, la SNCASE est officiellement formée le 1er février 1937.
5. William Green, War planes of the Second World War: Volume 7
6. SPCA 30

External links

• Media related to Société Provençale de Constructions Aéronautiques at Wikimedia Commons
• Airwar - SPCA 30
• Airspot (in Russian)
• Bombardement Reconnaissance - unités à identifier