Borel-Boccacio Type 3000


The Borel-Boccaccio Type 3000, also known as Borel C2, was a two-seat fighter designed and built in France to a 1918 C2 specification.

Design and development

In 1918 Borel responded to two specifications for fighter aircraft, one single seat (with provision for a rear gunner and another two-seater. What emerged were two aircraft almost identical to fulfil both specifications; the Borel C1 and Borel C2.

Borel C1

The C1 was designed with two fixed synchronised machine-guns, or a single machine-gun with a cannon firing through the propeller boss. Two additional machine-guns were also proposed, fired by a second crewman seated behind the pilot, known as a single-seat protégé, which mirrored the C2 specification. Development of the sole C1 was abandoned with the armistice in favour of the almost identical C2.

Borel C2 / Borel-Boccaccio Type 3000

The C2 was a two-seat fighter very similar to the C1 but with a gun ring in a separate cockpit behind the pilot and a revised cabane strut arrangement. The two-bay biplane wings had moderate stagger and were attached to the lower fuselage longerons and cabane struts under the centre section. Power was supplied by a Hispano-Suiza 8Fb driving a 2-bladed wooden propeller with a large spinner. The wooden fuselage was covered in fabric and housed two jettisonable fuel tanks and, initially, a ventral radiator for the closely cowled Hispano-Suiza 8Fb and fixed Vickers machine-gun. Provision for two cameras was made under the pilots seat and the rear gunner had two

Specifications (Type 3000 / C2)