Blériot 71

The Blériot Bl.71 BN.3 was a large French heavy biplane night bomber of the First World War, designed and built by Blériot to the BN.3 three-seat night bomber specification. Only a single prototype was built. It was a large equal-span biplane with the fuselage braced between the two wings, bearing a strong resemblance to the Bl.67, and four 160 kilowatt (220 horsepower) Hispano-Suiza 8B water-cooled V-8 engines mounted above each other on each side of the fuselage. The biplane tail was designed with three fins but built with two, and the fixed landing gear had four-wheel main units on struts and a tailskid. During flight testing it collided with a Breguet Br.14 B.2 at Villacoublay on 15 May 1918 and was damaged beyond repair. Its empty weight was 3,200 kilograms and its maximum speed 140 kilometres per hour.