French fighter aircraft Dewoitine D.520 COBI 5734 - World War II

You know that:

• The young 28-year-old engineer Emil Dewoitine was not satisfied with the job at his employer Latecoere, so he founded his own company, Les Avions Dewoitine, where he could build his dream fighter planes.In less than a year, he built the first D.1, which became a record holder.
• In 1934, Emil Dewoitine entered a competition for a new fighter aircraft launched by the French Ministry of Aviation.
• The new aircraft flew for the first time on October 2, 1938, but the prototype did not achieve the expected performance, so it was necessary to go back to the drawing board.
• After successful modifications, serial production began in the autumn of 1939, interrupted only by the German occupation of the factory in November 1942.
• The first aircraft were delivered to the Army on 12 May 1940 and the very next day they successfully intervened in the fighting at Cannes-Mondelieu.
• A total of 905 were produced in various versions.
• The second most successful Dewotine pilot was Czechoslovak pilot Sergeant Václav Cukr.
• Sergeant V. Cukr was an exceptionally talented pilot who, during the Battle of France, took on an outnumbered force of 12 Messerschmitt Bf 110s single-handedly, shooting down two German pilots and an observation balloon.
• After returning from combat to his home airfield, mechanics counted 127 machine gun hits and 2 cannon hits on the Czech pilot's aircraft. Never before had any pilot managed to land such a damaged aircraft.
• After another air battle in France, V. Sugar was forced to make an emergency landing and nearly lost his life when a French ground patrol believed him to be a downed German pilot.
• The very next day he was severely wounded by a shot to the head during an attack on a group of JU-87s. The nearly blind pilot still managed to shoot down one enemy aircraft and return to safety with the last of his strength.
• After the occupation of France, the still untreated pilot fled across North Africa to Britain to take part in further fighting.
• The consequences of his numerous injuries became more and more frequent and Václav Cukr had to exchange combat missions for a position as a flight instructor.
• His career in the air ended with an accident on July 4, 1943, when he crashed into V. Cukr was hit by an inexperienced Spitfire pilot in the clouds. Václav managed to jump out of the burning machine, but at an altitude of 100 meters the parachute did not open fully. The crown of a tree slowed the fall. During the fall, the pilot suffered many cuts and stab wounds from tree branches and fractures of almost every bone in his body, including his spine, and the chances of survival were very low... Václav Cukr recovered from all his injuries.
• For his heroic actions, Václav Cukr received the Croix de Guerres, a high French decoration, but instead of the well-deserved respect for his heroism, he faced persecution by the Communists in Czechoslovakia after 1948.
• Václav Cukr thus belongs to a large group of 2,500 forgotten Czechoslovak heroes.

Technical parameters:

• wingspan 10.25 m, length 8.75 m, height 2.60 m
• weight (empty) 2 090 kg
• maximum take-off weight 2 780 kg
• power plant gasoline 12 cylinder Hispano-Suiza 12Y-49 engine with 950 hp
• maximum speed 560 km/h 
• climb rate 14,3 m/s
• range 1250 km
• maximum flight level 10 000 m
• armament 4x MAC 1934 machine gun 7,5mm calibre + HS.404 cannon 20 mm calibre
• crew 1 person