Ordered by the French Ministère de l’Air (Ministry of Aviation) the S.E.1010 high-altitude photographic survey aircraft was designed and constructed by the SNCASE (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud–Est) at Marignane.
Powered by four 1,590 hp SNECMA (previously Gnome–Rhône) 14R-28/29 radials and registered F-WEEE, the aircraft was first flown from Marignane by a crew led by test pilot Jacques Lecarme on 24 November 1948.
Intended for high-altitude photography, The SE 1010 was based on the 1944 SE 1000 trans-Atlantic postal aircraft project. Intended foe the Institut Geographique National, the aircraft was complete with darkroom.
It carried seven cameras of which four could be used simultaneously from two vertical and two oblique stations.
The SE 1010 was intended to operate from short fields under primitive conditions and provision was made for the carriage of tools, engine and prop parts, and even spare main an tail wheels.
The crew of 4-6 were in pressurised accommodation, and the aircraft was entirely metal.
The aicraft used Mercier wing tip ailerons with hinge lines at approximately 45 deg to the fuselage centre line, these permitting the installation of flaps along almost the entire trailing edge of the wing.
Four aircraft were ordered and construction of a small production batch was started in 1949. The first, F-WEEE, was flown for the first time on 24 November 1948.
During a test flight on 1 October 1949, the aircraft entered a flat spin, from which it did not recover, the six crew were killed, including test pilot Henri Vanderpol. Subsequently the Ministère de l’Air revised its opinion of piston engines on future aircraft and the project was abandoned.
Engines: 4 x Gnome-Rhone 14R 28/29, 1590 hp
Wingspan: 101 ft 8.5 in / 31 m
Wing area: 1251.84 sq.ft / 116.2 sq.m
Length: 71 ft 6.5 in / 21.81 m
Height: 17 ft 0.75 in / 5.2 m
Empty weight: 39,022 lb / 17,700 kg
Normal loaded weight: 60,186 lb / 27,300 kg
Max speed: 323 mph / 520 kph at 26,250 ft / 8000 m
Eco cruise: 249 mph / 400 kph at 26,250 ft / 8000 m
Max range: 3915 mi / 6300 km
All Aero 