The Dewoitine HD.730 was French shipborne reconnaissance and observation floatplane designed in 1938, engineered to be catapulted from French cruisers and battleships, in order to modernize the Aéronavale’s scouting capabilities. It had a peculiar inverted gull wing Configuration and they were designed to be folded each on two hinges in order to optimize the limited storage space. It was also planned as an optional land-based variant for the carrier Béarn and had a twin floats configuration.
It had also a crew of two, pilot and and observer, the later acting as navigator and defensive gunner under a continuous glass canopy. However after the first tests in mid-1941 the armistice slowed things down. Other tests were performed in 1941 until Italian occupation authorites stopped the development, which resumed in 1945 after two more, heavily modified and remotorized prototypes. However in 1946 it lost a competition to a more modern model and never was greenlighted for production. Truly a forgotten salty bird.
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