Potez 15

The Potez 15 (also written Potez XV) was a French single-engine, two-seat observation biplane designed as a private venture by Louis Coroller and built by Potez and under licence in Poland.

Design and development

The plane was designed in the beginning of the 1920s by Henry Coroller in Potez works. It was a development of a fighter SEA IV built by Société d'Etudes Aéronautiques, a former firm of Henry Potez and Coroller. A prototype was flown in October 1921 and shown at Paris Air Show that year. It was conventional biplane with a fixed tailskid landing gear and a nose-mounted 276 kW (370 hp) Lorraine 12D engine. The engine was later replaced by a 224 kW (300 hp) Renault 12Fe.

After a successful evaluation, the aircraft was ordered by the Aéronautique Militiare as a reconnaissance aircraft. The first planes were manufactured and delivered in late 1923.

Series-built planes were powered with Lorraine-Dietrich 12Db inline engine. 410 were built in France. The plane was built in two main military variants: Potez 15 A2 reconnaissance plane and Potez 15 B2 bomber-reconnaissance plane. A single prototype of a floatplane variant Potez XV HO2 was built. There was also an export variant Potez XVII of 1923, built for Bulgaria only, with the same LD 12Db engine.