Robert Willis, e-mail, 03.08.2025 23:57 That should have read "funding the latter's development", not "finding". Sorry.

Robert Willis, e-mail, 03.08.2025 22:33 LN-161 was yet another dead end that rightfully lost the FAF fighter competition to the MS 406. Although it was potentially faster in a dive, the LN-161 offered no speed advantage over the MS 406 in level flight or rate of climb. Due to it's higher wing loading, the LN-161 was inferior in terms of handling and maneuverability. Also, the MS 406 had markedly superior range. That said, from the outset it should have been clear that the LN-161 was a much better design than the Loire 250, but the company still foolishly chose to compete against itself by finding the latter's development. The one context in which limited series production of the LN-161 could have made sense is if 20 of them had built them in place of the worse than useless Loire 210. By the end of 1936, the Aeronavale should have realized that cruiser/battleship borne fighters were a waste of space, and that having at least a few escadrilles of relatively modern land based based fighters was far more urgent.

Tony Newman, e-mail, 22.03.2013 23:32 Looks like another promising design prevented from proving itself by bad luck more than anything else. Another lost opportunity I think.