Talk:Amiot 143

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I believe it should be moved to more general name Amiot 143. Besides, according to some sources, it was named not 143M, but Amiot 143M-4 Pibwl 11:07, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC)

the 143M actually was a modified subvariant, with a longer front fuselage to compensate from CoG problems. I plan to add a few things to the article. PpPachy 09:42, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

more than 100% losses...

"A force of 13 planes from GBs I/34, II/34, and II/38 led by Commandant de Laubier encountered German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters en route. 15 bombers were destroyed." <-- interesting math there. -DMH 30 Apr 2010

Number of the beast?

FWIW, Donald's Encyclopedia of World Aircraft & Fitzsimons' Weapons & Warfare (v1) both put 143 production at 138 & make no mention of 143M production #. Donald has the 143.01 as a prototype, & it looks like this was the 1st 143M; at least 41 were built, & I'd guess there were 148 in all. Donald also has 140 orders total 40, & neither mentions the 145 & 147 variants at all. TREKphiler ^{hit me ♠} 11:16, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Numbers vary slightly because different sources appear to be counting different things; I've condensed the section down to subtypes and numbers that seem to have a high degree of certainty attached to them; it seems likely that there may have been a few more prototypes and/or pre-production machines in amongst them. But the major discrepancy was caused by separate entries (with slightly different numbers) for the "143" and "143M", when these numbers were in fact overlapping. --Rlandmann (talk) 12:12, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

I had a suspicion of that, but no solid # to back it. TREKphiler ^{hit me ♠} 18:42, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

William Green in War Planes of the Second World War: Volume Seven Bombers has Amiot 143 production at 138, but does not distinguish between the 143 and 143M - Amiot 143 M5 appears to be the official French Air Force designation for the type - i.e a 5 seat multiplace de combat. There appears to have been no change in designation associated with the lengthened nose. It also says one example of the Amiot 147 was built and flown in October–December 1936. An article in the December 1988 issue of Air International (not credited to an author, but possibly also the work of Bill Green) has Amiot 143 orders as 178 with production continuing until March 1938. Again it has the M designation referring to the role, not to any change in the aircraft, with the type possibly officiially referred to as the 143 Bn 5 (Night Bomber) by the French air force when its role was switched to night operations.Nigel Ish (talk) 15:33, 15 May 2010 (UTC)