On this day in aviation history, 80 years ago (May 9, 1946), the first flight of the SECAN SUC-10 Courlis took place. French for Curlew, a type of bird, the Courlis was a high-wing touring monoplane developed by Société d’Etudes et de Construction Aéronavales (SECAN). SECAN was a branch of the automobile company Société des Usines Chaussons. The Courlis was designed as an all-metal high-wing aircraft, featuring a tail unit supported by twin booms. The SECAN Courlis had a fixed tricycle undercarriage and a cabin with seating for four occupants. Prototype F-WBBF was the first SUC-10 to take flight, and this was shortly followed by production. SECAN built 144 Courlis aircraft, with many being exported to South America. As the aircraft began to see more flight hours, problems with the SUC-10’s 200-hp Mathis G.8R-40 air-cooled inverted-V piston engine’s cooling were exposed. These issues ultimately led to the withdrawal of the engine’s type certificate, and some airframes were never fitted with an engine and scrapped.
SECAN attempted to remedy the engine cooling issues by replacing the G.8R-40 with a 220-hp Mathis, but production was ended before further flight evaluations could be conducted. A handful of French private pilots flew the SUC-10 for years, but most had been withdrawn from flight duty by the mid-1950s. A 1961 redesign was developed, known as the SUC-11G Super Courlis. The SUC-11G featured a 240-hp Continental O-470M engine, but the project was abandoned after construction of the initial prototype. The SUC-10 Courlis could cruise along at 140 mph, attain a maximum airspeed of 160 mph, and land at 50 mph. With four occupants and luggage, the aircraft had a range of 660 nautical miles and a service ceiling of 16,000 feet. One Courlis is known to survive today, and it is currently being stored at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace in Paris, France.
