Photo Recon

That is a fairly rare 3 seat Caudron R.11, which was actually used mainly as a long range escort fighter. Equipped with two Hispano-Suiza V8s, performance was actually pretty good. Only about 50 were in use when the armistice was declared, although 370 were built. The R prefix did indicate reconnaissance, so no explanation why they were used mainly to escort Breguet 14 2 seater formations in coordination with SPAD 13 fighters. Not much record of how they did against German fighters.

 

Although there were lots of aircraft designed for visual scouting (the U.S. Army designated them as O for observation), it was rare to build one solely for photographic reconnaissance. Perhaps the finest would have been the Republic F-12 Rainbow (the Army used the designation F for foto, since P was in use for fighters ("pursuits") and R for helicopters ("rotorcraft")), which actually had an onboard studio for developing the images. Unfortunately, WW II ended before it could enter production, and it was too expensive for the limited numbers the airlines had expected to buy, so only two XF-12 prototypes were built.

When the USAF changed designations upon its formation, F became used for fighters, H for helicopters and R for reconnaissance, so the Rainbows became XR-12s. Their mission was performed instead by RB-29 and RB-50 Superfortresses. But the Rainbow will probably always remain the world's fastest large piston-engined aircraft.

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