How many Breguet 730 hulls existed at the 1940 capitulation?

Short answer

None finished: when France capitulated, on 22 June 1940, no production Breguet 730 had been completed and production was halted. The Vichy government later resumed work, joining the wrecked prototype's wing to the hull of the first production aircraft to form the Br. 730 No.1.

Published: November 5, 2026 · Updated: November 5, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

How many Breguet 730 hulls existed at the 1940 capitulation?

Breguet 730 IMG 8696Rama (CC BY SA), vía commons

A flying boat to replace the Bizerte

In May 1935 the French Navy issued a specification for a new long-range flying boat to replace the obsolete 521 Bizerte. The first prototype, the Br.730-01, with Gnome-Rhône 14N-2 and Gnome-Rhône 14N-3 engines of 750 kW (1,010 hp), flew on 4 April 1938 at Le Havre. That prototype was wrecked on 16 July 1938, when it attempted to alight on shallow water.

Orders and capitulation

Despite the setback, an order was placed for four production aircraft, followed, when the Second World War broke out in September 1939, by an unlimited production contract. No production aircraft had been completed when France capitulated, on 22 June 1940, at which point production was halted.

Vichy, the occupation and the 1944 bombing

Work resumed under the Vichy government: the wrecked prototype's wing was combined with the hull of the first production aircraft to produce the Br. 730 No.1. Construction of the remaining eleven aircraft proceeded extremely slowly during the German occupation, and eight of them were destroyed in an Allied bombing raid on 6 April 1944.