With Béarn as its only carrier, the French Navy needed a batch of just eleven torpedo bombers. Major manufacturers had little incentive to interrupt larger production programs for such a small order, while American and Japanese carrier-aircraft industries were not yet obvious high-volume alternatives in the early 1920s. Racial prejudice would also have made a Japanese purchase politically unlikely, even apart from Japan's then-limited production volume. Buying British aircraft was therefore the most practical foreign option. Levasseur instead used his Blackburn relationship to adapt the Dart concept to French engines and requirements. The PL.2 preserved domestic manufacture without forcing France to fund a clean-sheet design for a tiny fleet.
Chapter · 7:50-10:29
The PL.2 solves a small French carrier order
France's order for only eleven torpedo bombers made a Levasseur-built adaptation of the Blackburn Dart more practical than a large domestic production program.