D.21
Argentine Dewoitine D.21
Role	Fighter Type of aircraft
Manufacturer	Dewoitine
First flight	1925

The Dewoitine D.21 was 1920s French open-cockpit, fixed-undercarriage, parasol winged monoplane fighter aircraft.

Design and development

The prototype D.21 was a development of the D.12. The aircraft was license-built in Switzerland (by EKW), Czechoslovakia (by Skoda and known as the Skoda-Dewoitine D.1) and Argentina (by FMA). One Turkish D.21 was fitted with a modified wing and named Orhanelli.

Operational history

Argentina bought seven French-built D.21s, and built another 38 under license by FMA from 1929 to 1932. The type remained in service until 1941.^[1] Turkey bought a number, and Czechoslovakia built 25 for their air force.^[2]

Variants

D.21 C.1

French Production version, license-built in Argentina and Turkey.

Skoda D.1

Licence manufacture of the Dewoitine D.21 in Czechoslovakia by Skoda;(26 built - included in D.9 total). Škoda L was a licence-built Hispanio Suiza HS-50. Armament only 2 × 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Vickers machine-guns

Operators

 Argentina

• Army Aviation Service
• Argentine Naval Aviation

 Czechoslovakia

 Paraguay

• Paraguayan Air Force

  Switzerland

 Turkey

• Turkish Air Force

Specifications (D.21 C.1)

Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1928,^[3] The encyclopedia of world aircraft^[2]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 7.925 m (26 ft 0 in)
• Wingspan: 12.8 m (42 ft 0 in)
• Height: 3.32 m (10 ft 11 in)
• Wing area: 25 m² (270 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 1,090 kg (2,403 lb)
• Gross weight: 1,590 kg (3,505 lb)
• Fuel capacity: 250 kg (550 lb) (ca. 175 L (46 US gal; 38 imp gal))
• Powerplant: 1 × Hispano-Suiza 12Gb W-12 water-cooled piston engine, 370 kW (500 hp)
• Propellers: 2-bladed fixed pitch propeller

Performance

• Maximum speed: 267 km/h (166 mph, 144 kn) at sea level
  

262 km/h (163 mph; 141 kn) at 2,000 m (6,600 ft)

258 km/h (160 mph; 139 kn) at 3,000 m (9,800 ft)

254 km/h (158 mph; 137 kn) at 4,000 m (13,000 ft)

250 km/h (160 mph; 130 kn) at 5,000 m (16,000 ft)

• Range: 400 km (250 mi, 220 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 8,991 m (29,498 ft)
• Rate of climb: 10 m/s (2,000 ft/min)
• Time to altitude: 4,000 m (13,000 ft) in 8 minutes 4 seconds
  

5,000 m (16,000 ft) in 11 minutes 17 seconds

• Wing loading: 63.6 kg/m² (13.0 lb/sq ft)
• Power/mass: 0.2694 kW/kg (0.1639 hp/lb)

Armament

• Guns: 2 × fuselage-mounted synchronised 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Vickers machine-guns and 2 × wing-mounted 7.5 mm (0.295 in) Darne machine-guns in the centre section (optional)