Heller 80208 Caudron C.635 Simoun — 1/72 Scale Plastic model kit

Manufacturer: Heller, France

Kit number: 80208

EAN: 3279510802085

Aircraft: Caudron C.635 Simoun

Scale: 1/72

Kit type: Injection-moulded plastic

Parts: 34

Model length: 127 mm

Wingspan: 144 mm

Decal/marking options: 3

Current status: Out of production (OOP) at several retailers

Known reissue: 2011 reissue used captured French aircraft for training, communications and utility duties.

Original tooling/kit history: generally dated to 1978, with the 80208 boxing being a later reissue.
Heller and the kit's history

Heller is one of France's historic plastic-model manufacturers and has a particularly strong catalogue of French aviation subjects. The company's willingness to produce less-common French aircraft is one reason its older 1/72 catalogue remains interesting to collectors.

The Caudron C.635 Simoun is a particularly appropriate Heller subject because it represents an important part of French civil aviation history rather than a conventional wartime fighter.

The original Heller Simoun tooling is associated with 1978, while the 80208 boxing was reissued in 2011. A contemporary kit review explicitly identifies 80208 as the 2011 reissue, priced at $15 at the time and supplied with three decal options.

The kit remains notable among Heller collectors because it is one of the company's relatively small number of French inter-war civil aircraft. Heller-ForEver records several different 80208 boxings and decal treatments, including later versions with revised decal sheets.
Kit contents

The 80208 contains 34 plastic parts. The finished model is approximately 127 mm long with a 144 mm wingspan, making it a compact but distinctive 1/72 aircraft.

The documented marking options are:

Caudron C.635M, French Air Force, aircraft No. 7400, "43", 1938.

Caudron C.635, Paris–Tokyo raid, 1937, aircraft No. 7090.

Caudron C.635, Air Bleu, aircraft No. 7017/F-ANRO, 1 April 1936.

The kit is a relatively simple vintage design with a surprisingly attractive subject. A modeller's report describes it as an enjoyable build with a well-detailed interior, although much of that interior becomes difficult to see after the fuselage is closed.

The kit's tooling dates from the era when Heller commonly used raised surface detail, rather than the recessed panel lines found on many modern kits. This is appropriate to the age of the tooling and is part of its vintage character.
The real aircraft — Caudron C.635 Simoun

The Caudron C.635 Simoun was a French four-seat touring, liaison and long-distance aircraft of the 1930s.

The Simoun family was designed by the celebrated French aircraft designer Marcel Riffard, who was also responsible for Caudron's highly successful racing aircraft.

The design evolved from the racing aircraft developed for the Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe. The basic formula was a relatively small, extremely clean and aerodynamically efficient low-wing monoplane constructed predominantly from wood.

The early C.500/C.520/C.620 prototypes evolved into the C.630 and ultimately the C.635, which became the principal production development.

The C.635 used a Renault Bengali six-cylinder engine producing approximately 220 hp. The aircraft had:

Crew: normally 1–2

Passengers: up to 4, depending on configuration

Length: approximately 9.1–9.15 m

Wingspan: 10.40 m

Cruising speed: approximately 280 km/h

Maximum speed: around 300–310 km/h

Fixed, streamlined landing gear

Wooden construction

The Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Foundation gives a C.635 specification of a 220 hp Renault 6 Q01, 10.40 m wingspan, 9.15 m length and 280 km/h cruising speed.

The Simoun was remarkable for its period because it combined a relatively small engine with very clean aerodynamics. Contemporary accounts place the aircraft among the early touring machines capable of approaching or exceeding 300 km/h.
Caudron and Renault

The aircraft's history is also tied to Renault.

Renault acquired Caudron in 1933, and the company subsequently became known as Caudron-Renault. The Simoun therefore combined Caudron's aircraft-design expertise with Renault's engines and industrial resources.

This was a productive combination. The Simoun was light, fast and relatively economical, making it attractive to both private owners and commercial operators.

The aircraft was expensive for an individual pilot, however. Historical sources give contemporary prices in the region of 128,000–157,000 French francs, meaning ownership was largely restricted to affluent private aviators and professional record-setting pilots.
Record flights and famous pilots

The Simoun's greatest fame came from long-distance flying.

The aircraft was used by a number of prominent French aviators, including:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Marcel Doret

Michel Détroyat

André Japy

Maryse Bastié

Maryse Hilsz

The aircraft was particularly suited to record attempts because its clean aerodynamics provided good speed and range for its engine power.

One important flight was the Paris–Tananarive (Antananarivo) record in December 1935. Gaston Génin and André Robert flew a specially prepared Simoun from Le Bourget to Madagascar, covering approximately 8,665 km in 57 hours and 6 minutes with intermediate stops.

The Simoun was consequently much more than an ordinary touring aircraft: it became one of the representative French record machines of the mid-1930s.
Air Bleu

The aircraft also had an important commercial career.

The French postal airline Air Bleu, established in 1935, used Simouns for domestic airmail operations. Sources differ on the precise number by variant, but the airline operated a small fleet of C.630 and C.635 aircraft.

This makes the Air Bleu marking supplied in the Heller kit particularly historically appropriate.

The aircraft represented by the Air Bleu option was not merely a private touring aircraft—it represents the Simoun in one of its most important commercial roles.
The Paris–Tokyo connection

The third marking option is especially interesting.

The Simoun was used in attempts to establish long-distance routes between France and Asia. André Japy, one of the era's outstanding French long-distance pilots, attempted a Paris–Tokyo flight in a specially prepared Simoun.

He reached Hanoi in approximately 51 hours, but bad weather prevented him from completing the final portion of the journey as planned.

The Heller kit's Paris–Tokyo option therefore represents one of the aircraft's most famous record-flying episodes.
Saint-Exupéry and the Simoun

The Simoun is also closely associated with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of Wind, Sand and Stars and The Little Prince.

In 1936, Saint-Exupéry acquired a C.635, registration F-ANXK. The aircraft was red and was used during filming connected with Courrier Sud.

In February 1938, Saint-Exupéry and his navigator André Prévot attempted a long-distance flight from New York toward South America in the Simoun.

After travelling approximately 5,500 km, they crashed during an attempted departure from Guatemala City after the aircraft was overloaded with fuel. The accident left Saint-Exupéry seriously injured and unconscious for several days.

This episode is one of the best-known chapters in the Simoun's history and further connects the aircraft to the world of inter-war aviation adventure.
Military service

The Simoun's performance also attracted the French military.

The C.635M was developed as a military liaison and training aircraft. The French Air Force ordered large numbers, while the French naval air arm also received aircraft.

Sources give somewhat different totals because they classify C.635 conversions and military variants differently. A useful breakdown is approximately:
Air Bleu

46 C.635 civilian aircraft built, with some earlier aircraft converted to the standard;

around 489 C.635M military aircraft;

additional aircraft supplied to the French Navy and other users.

Another historical source records 110 C.635s ordered by the French Air Force in 1935–36 and 32 received by the French naval air arm, while more than 500 Simouns of the various versions had been produced before May 1940.

The exact overall production figure is therefore best treated as approximately 500–680 aircraft for the wider Simoun family, rather than as one completely settled number. Sources commonly quote either around 570–590 or approximately 680, depending on how prototypes, conversions and military variants are counted.
Second World War

The outbreak of the Second World War changed the aircraft's role.

Military Simouns served with the French armed forces as liaison and training aircraft. After the defeat of France, surviving aircraft continued to operate under various authorities.

A number were subsequently operated by the Luftwaffe, which used captured French aircraft for training, communications and utility duties.

The type's relatively simple construction and useful performance allowed it to remain in service after newer aircraft had made it obsolete as a modern combat design.

The last French military Simouns survived into the post-war period. Sources indicate that the French Air Force retired its remaining examples in Morocco in 1949, while the French naval air arm's last Simoun was withdrawn in February 1950.
Survivors

The Simoun is now extremely rare.

Sources identify two surviving aircraft, including an example preserved at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget and another associated with efforts to return a preserved aircraft to flight.

One of the historically significant airworthy examples, F-AZAM, was destroyed in a crash in September 2002, killing its owner Albert Prost.

That scarcity makes the Heller kit a particularly appealing representation of a historically important French aircraft for collectors of inter-war aviation.