The PL.10 became Levasseur's most numerous aircraft family: thirty PL.10s and thirty PL.101s formed its production core, alongside two PL.107s and one PL.108. The family included enclosed-cockpit torpedo-bomber experiments, swept-back wings, a wider-track undercarriage, and trials of Gnome-Rhône and Hispano-Suiza powerplants. Its principal design combined a single-bay biplane layout with a watertight, boat-shaped fuselage. Small underwing floats helped stabilize the aircraft after ditching, while the landing gear could be jettisoned before contact with the sea. Those provisions were intended to improve crew survival rather than save the airframe. They made particular sense for a navy with only one carrier and wide maritime areas in which an aircraft might be forced down far from immediate recovery.
Chapter · 31:16-34:20
The PL.10 family combines reconnaissance with ditching survival
Levasseur's most numerous family uses watertight fuselages, underwing floats, and jettisonable landing gear to improve crew survival over wide maritime operating areas.