The Potez 36 A short summary of the history of the Potez 36
Established in 1936 by the Popular Front to make the practice of air sports more accessible, and set up by Prime Minister of Air Pierre Cot, the main objective of the Popular Air Force was to provide the emerging air force with aircrew.
Henry Potez, precursor in the recreational aviation with the Potez 36, then offered the ideal aircraft for the training of future military pilots and thus, many flying clubs had for the first flying machine a Potez 36.
Unfortunately, the beginning of the war in 1939 put an end to the People’s Air Force and many of the aircraft used by the flying clubs were requisitioned by the Air Force as liaison and observation aircraft. A large part will not survive, like many young pilots who died for France, who, a few years earlier, were learning to fly around an airfield with a Potez 36 as their first mount.
The Potez 36-13
Version equipped with the Potez 36-5 engine and safety nozzles. The first of the 96 models left the ground in June 1931. There are only 2 copies left: that of the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace du Bourget, and that sold to the European Museum of Fighter Aviation of Montélimar (Drôme) for restoration. (F-PEVA since 1957, ex. F-AMEI n°3203 built in 1932)
Potez 36-13 #3203
With the help of Mr Christian RAVEL, who found in the archives of the GPPA museum (Groupement pour la Préservation du Patrimoine Aéronautique) the file "DGAC" (Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile) of the aircraft, we know exactly its history, from the application for registration in the French Register until its cancellation.
Built in 1932 in Meaulte in the Potez factories with serial number 3203, our plane was registered F-AMEI in the first half of 1933 thus becoming the second aircraft of the Bourg flying club in Bresse. At that time, the plane was called "City of Bourg".
At the declaration of war, damaged on the ground of Vennes, it will be transported to the aerodrome of Lyon to undergo repair work. In 1940, the aircraft was weathered at the Bron aerodrome among other aircraft. Upon release, the aircraft was recovered by the Bourg Flying Club in Bresse and, in the face of difficulties, it was sold to Mr.Gilbert BELIN who flew it on the Besançon-Thise field.
It then goes under the aircraft register in CNRA (Certificate of Restricted Airworthiness of Aircraft) with the registration F-PEVA on August 8, 1955 and will be sold that year to the flying club of Méry-sur-Oise. The Potez 36 was struck off the books in 1959, following a wooden horse (or tail-head) accident at the Méry-sur-Oise airfield. Bought by the Coutereau family, the latter will undertake the collection of a very large number of spare parts, coming from the wrecks of Potez 36, in order to restore this device that will be put on sale with all the stock of spare parts in 2002.
The Musée Européen de l'Aviation de Chasse de Montélimar acquired the ensemble in March 2002, and since then the Potez 36-13, serial number 3203, has been restored in the museum’s workshops.
It will be, in the years to come, the only Potez 36-13 in flight condition.
To date, of the 250 or so Potez 36 built, only three copies worldwide :
• Potez 36-14 in the lobby of ALBERT Station
• the Potez 36-13, which is on display at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace du Bourget
• The Potez 36-13 which is being restored at the European Museum of Fighter Aviation in Montélimar and classified as a historical monument since December 2012