Farman HF.20 – Promenade Autour

L' Farman HF.20 et ses dérivés ont été une famille d'avions de reconnaissance produites en France peu de temps avant et pendant la Première Guerre Mondiale. C'était une version améliorée du Farman MF.11 « Shorthorn » qui a fait disparaître le type’s distinctif patins d'atterrissage, et intègre des fonctionnalités de conception de Henri Farman’s designs. It entered service with the French, Belgian and Serbian armies in 1913 (two aircraft conducted reconnaissance during the Siege of Shkodër in the First Balkan War and one crashed), and with the British RFC and RNAS shortly after the outbreak of war. The type was also licence-built in the UK by Airco and Grahame-White. The HF.20 was seriously underpowered, and a variety of engines were trialled in the hope of correcting this, none with much success. The problem was eventually solved only when an engine of twice the power of the original powerplant was fitted to the HF.27 variant, by which time the aircraft was already obsolete. Nevertheless, the performance of the HF.20 made it adequate for use on secondary fronts.

Source: Farman HF.20 sur Wikipédia