Bloch MB157 is the
ultimate version of Bloch MB150. It is built around the engine
Gn�me-Rh�ne 14 R-4 of 1700cv equipped with a turbo-compressor
in two-stages. The aircraft is globally more impressive with a
fuselage of wider section and a train heightened in the wider
way.
The construction
begins in December, 1939, but the assemblage composed of many
subassemblies, advanced slowly and was disturbed by the bombing
of the plant on 3 June 1940. In front of the German advance, the
prototype under construction is evacuated southward, but the convoy
is intercepted in Poitiers by the Germans and the plane, seized,
is transferred towards the factory SNCASO of Bordeaux. It is thus
in the hands of the Germans that the construction was finished
and the first flights realized in March 1942 under the registration
"PG + IC", with a French pilot at the controls: Zacharie
Heu, former test pilot of ANF Aux Mureaux.
The aircraft has an amazing
performance for the time : it reaches 710km / h and is able to
climb to 7900m in 11mn only ... The planned armament was identical
to that of the Bloch MB155: 2 guns Hispano of 20mm and four machine
guns Of 7.5mm. After this first promising flight, the Germans
transferred the aircraft to Orly: the cell, stored in a hangar,
was destroyed during an allied bombardment in 1944. The engine
was sent to Germany for study.
If
the events had allowed it, the Bloch MB157, would undoubtedly
have been a remarkable aircraft, although it is likely that its
development would have taken months to be really "war good."
