The Bugatti 100P airplane was designed in 1937 by the engineer Pierre Louis de Monge, on request from Bugatti, to compete in the famous "Coupe Deutch de la Meuthe" air race.
It was to be powered by two engines located in mid-fuselage behind the cockpit, with each driveshaft connected through a universal joint to a reduction gearbox driving two counter-rotating propellers. Cooling air for the engines was scooped into the hollow leading edges of the butterfly tail and ventral fin; it was then passed forward to the two-part radiator, before being exhausted out the sides.
Although offering many avant-garde design features (inverted Y-tail, forward-swept wings), the Model 100, designed to reach a speed of more than 700 km/h, (435 mph) would never fly.
Built in several Parisian workshops, it was hidden during World War II. It was then brought to the United States, where its engines were removed and used in Bugatti racing cars. The fuselage, passing from hand to hand, was finally donated to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) museum, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which started restoration in 1996.
We will never know if this unique aircraft would have set a world speed record. But the Bugatti 100P’s audacious design and elegant lines have earned it a spot of honor in the EAA museum in Oshkosh.
In fact, the French War Ministry had awarded Ettore Bugatti a contract for two aircraft models: the 100P racer shown here, designed to break the record for a 100 kilometer closed circuit; and the 110P, with a smaller wing, designed to set the absolute speed record, and from which a fighter plane would be derived. The fighter version was never built.
Wingspan: 8.235 m
Wing area: 11.4 m²
Length: 7.73 m
Height: 2.25 m
Airframe empty weight as measured in 1959: 1,400 kg
Two Bugatti 4.7 liter overhead camshaft engines with turbocharger: 450 hp at 4,500 rpm
Two Ratier fixed-pitch propellers
