Blériot 73

The Blériot Bl.73 BN.3 was a large French equal-span biplane of the First World War, designed and built by Blériot to the BN.3 three-seat night bomber specification, and only one prototype was built. It resembled the slightly smaller Bl.71, but the lower wing had considerable dihedral and was attached to the top of the fuselage, and the rear fuselage curved strongly upwards to a biplane tail with twin rudders. Four 220 kilowatt (300 horsepower) Hispano-Suiza 8Fb water-cooled V-8 engines were mounted two over two on the wing leading edges, and the landing gear used two four-wheel bogeys. On 22 January 1919 the sole Bl.73 crashed on landing at the end of its first flight, killing the pilot.