Sud -Est SE-2010 Armagnac – The Forgotten Giant

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Sud-Est SE-2010 Armagnac was a post-war French airliner with a pressurized cabin intended to operate on the Air France trans-ocean routes. Development of this four-engine airliner started already during the war. The final outcome must have been very disappointing since only eight production models were actually flown and Air France ordered the Lockheed Constellation instead! In spite of this unsuccessful start, the remaining Armagnacs were intensively used during the fifties for air transport to French Indo-Chine, now Vietnam.

It is very brave to write a book on such an unknown aircraft type, but Mr. Laurent Gruz has taken this risk.

The result is really surprising! Mr. Gruz deals in 11 separate chapters with the predecessors, the early designs of a large pressurized airliner from various French companies and the final development and operational career of the Armagnac.

Also contemporary designs like the Lockheed Constitution, the Avro Tudor and the Bristol Brabazon are amply discussed. The very unknown fact that the Armagnac was already planned with turboprop engines is discussed in detail in a full chapter! One Armagnac was used as a test-bed for jet engines and also this is discussed in a full chapter.

The book counts in total more than 200 photographs plus a lot of technical drawings in the Annexes. The book contains further a number of rare colour photos, colour profiles and very detailed  line drawings.

[Show as slideshow]

All photo  captions are bi-lingual French/English but unfortunately an all-over English summary is not present. However, the French language used is quite ‘reader’s friendly’ and must be no real problem for foreign readers having some basic knowledge of the French language.

Final conclusion: this is a very detailed book on an unknown aircraft type with  a lot of information never published before. The book is printed on glossy paper and the quality of the photos is excellent. It is fully worth its price and REALLY recommended!!

Book details:

Title:                                       SE-2010 Armagnac, le géant oublié

Author:                                  Laurent Gruz

Publisher:                              www.livres.aero

Format:                                 A4 hardcover

Pages:                                    192

ISBN:                                     978-2-9537763-0-0

Price:                                      EURO 40

With special thanks to Laurent Gruz & Rachel Daeschler for providing a review copy.

Nico Braas