The Nord Noratlas was a dedicated military transport aircraft, developed and manufactured by French aircraft manufacturer Nord Aviation. Following the end of the Second World War, the French Armée de l'Air was left with two primary transport aircraft: the German Junkers Ju 52, which was produced for some time in France after the end of the conflict, and the American Douglas C-47, which had been received from US surplus. While both of these types were typically known for their good service levels, they were by no means modern or particularly large in comparison with newer contemporaries. Both aircraft had suffered from a common set of flaws, such as the traditional tailwheel landing gear configuration, which gave them a nose-up attitude when at rest that complicated the loading and unloading of cargo, relatively restrictive side-loading doors and a limited payload capacity. In light of these apparent shortcomings, during 1947, the Direction Technique Industrielle (DTI) organized a design competition that sought a medium-weight cargo aircraft which would offer very high operational flexibility. In response to the competition, the Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Nord (SNCAN) produced a response in the form of the proposed Nord 2500. Several other competing French aviation firms, such as Breguet and Sud-Ouest, offered their own designs, the BR-891R Mars and SO-30C, respectively. The Nord 2500, which was designed with rear-opening clamshell doors to allow for easy cargo handling, was considered to be the most promising of the submissions received; according, on 27 April 1948, DTI placed an order for a pair of prototypes to be constructed for evaluation. On 10 September 1949, the first prototype conducted its maiden flight. It was powered by a pair of Gnome-Rhône 14R engines, each capable of generating 1,600 hp, which drove three-bladed variable-pitch propellers. However, flight testing soon determined that the first prototype was simply too slow to be useful for most applications. As such, on the second prototype, the 14Rs were replaced by a pair of SNECMA-built Bristol Hercules 738/9 engines, capable of producing 2,040 hp, along with a new four-bladed Rotol propeller arrangement. The revised model was rechristened as the Nord 2501. Having been suitably impressed by its performance following the improvements, DTI decided to order three more pre-production aircraft to the Nord 2501 standard. These pre-production aircraft underwent extensive flight testing, which included a series of fly-offs against the similar American Fairchild C-82 Packet. From these, the N2501 was found to be superior, leading to an initial production order for a batch of 34 aircraft on 10 July 1951. Tragedy struck the development effort during 1952 when the first Nord 2501 prototype was lost in an accident during a test flight. On 9 January 1953, the Nord 2501 was baptized as the Noratlas by the widow of the pilot killed in the first prototype's crash. Despite the setback of the first prototype's loss, Nord continued the programme to schedule, fulfilling its initial contract for 34 aircraft by 25 June 1953, and the Armée de l'Air went on to order another 174 Noratlases, for a total of 228 aircraft in French service. Following an eventual production run of some 425 planes, the final Noratlas was constructed during 1961. It was succeeded and eventually replaced by the multinational Transall C-160. For more details on the development, design, operational history and 23 variants of the Noratlas, click here.
