Farman F.60 Goliath
The Farman F.60 Goliath is a French twin-engine biplane designed in 1918 as a heavy bomber and converted into an airliner when the First World War ended, weeks after its first flight. The Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace calls it the first French civil transport aircraft. More than sixty were built over ten years; Goliaths began regular Paris–London flights in 1920, were built under licence in Czechoslovakia, and were developed into bomber and torpedo variants. No complete example survives: the museum at Le Bourget holds the only surviving fuselage.
Why It Mattered
The Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace calls the Farman F.60 Goliath the first French civil transport aircraft. It began as a heavy bomber from a military programme started in 1918, and was converted into a long-distance civil transport when the war ended. From 1920 it carried passengers between Paris and London, which the museum describes as the start of passenger air transport on that route. The museum goes further, calling the converted bomber the first airliner in history. More than sixty were built over ten years, and Goliaths went on to link the capitals of Europe into the early 1930s.
Design Notes
The Goliath was designed in 1918 as a heavy bomber, meant to carry 1,000 kg of bombs over a range of 1,500 km. It was a three-bay biplane of fabric-covered wood, with a fixed undercarriage and two Salmson 9Z engines. Its big, box-like fuselage was what made the conversion practical: fitted with a passenger cabin, the bomber could carry 12 or 14 passengers. The cabin had large windows so passengers could watch the country pass below, though the museum notes that the comfort provided was very limited. Engines were the customer's choice: the Salmsons could be replaced by Renault or Lorraine units if the buyer wished. Size earned it a nickname: the museum records that it was called "l'aérobus".
Operational History
The Goliath first flew in early October 1918, and was still undergoing initial testing when the First World War ended on 11 November. Farman pressed it into service quickly: on 8 February 1919 it flew 12 passengers from Toussus-le-Noble to RAF Kenley, near Croydon, in two and a half hours. Regular services followed in 1920, when the Compagnie des Grands Express Aériens began scheduling flights between Le Bourget and Croydon. Farman's own airline, the Société Générale de Transports Aériens, opened a Paris–Brussels route in July 1920, flown by Goliaths, and extended it to Amsterdam in May 1921. The museum's notes record a Goliath chartered by the Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes on the Paris–Brussels–Amsterdam route, in the sky-blue livery of the Lignes Aériennes Farman. The museum counts F.60 production at more than sixty aircraft over ten years. A further eight were built under licence in Czechoslovakia between 1927 and 1929, four by Avia and four by Letov. The design also returned to military work: Wikipedia's variant list records 210 F.60 Bn.2 night bombers delivered to French naval and army aviation. The same list counts sixty F.65 floatplane torpedo-bombers built for the French navy and thirty-two F.68 BN.4 bombers exported to Poland. In civil hands the type stayed at work for a decade: the museum says it carried passengers until 1930, and describes Goliaths linking European capitals until 1933.
Afterlife
No complete Goliath survives. What remains is a fuselage, held by the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget, which describes it as the only fuselage of the type still in existence. Wikipedia identifies the exhibit as the forward fuselage of F-HMFU. The museum says its aircraft was the third Goliath built, that it was operated for a time on the Paris–London route, and that it ended its career flying in the Alps. Beside it in the interwar hall, the museum displays a tenth-scale model of the Goliath, restored in 2023 for its Les Années folles de l'aviation exhibition.