FANT —

The correct registration is F-BANT, nice photo .
Thanks for posting it.

This was the second of seven built, and first flew in March 1945. According to wiki, five crashed and two were scrapped. Crew of five, cruise speed of 185 mph, and a range of 2300 miles.

What a beast!

Couple of short video clips, with French commentary at http://www.pionnair-ge.com/spip1/videos/Late631-1945-8_Div-Qtp-061.mov

great pictures from past flying history

Presume this would be a passenger plane, and used for whatever? What a way to start your Holiday, wow!

Solent?? Looks like palm trees in the upper left of the photo????

Nice plane.

id love to see this fly now

What a great shot.
My dad was in the RAAF in the UK through the war and just wish he had been a photographer but on the other hand thinking about most of his later photos I would have just found it frustrating trying to work out what the tiny dot was up in the corner of the shot.
I find it amazing that France was producing and flying an aircraft like this 2 months before VE day.

The Latécoère 631 was the result of a specification issued in 1936 by the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile for a 40-passenger airliner with a range of 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi). The aircraft was ordered in 1938. It was intended that it would be powered by six Gnome et Rhône P.18 engines of 1,650 horsepower (1,230 kW) each.

Construction of the aircraft was stopped due to the outbreak of World War II and was not resumed until after the signing of the Franco-German Armistice. The first aircraft was destroyed during allied war action.
The second aircraft, F-BANT, first flew on 7 March 1945. It was powered by six Wright Cyclone engines of 1,600-hp each. Four aircraft were purchased by Air France, and entered service on the Biscarosse-Port-Étienne-Fort de France route in July 1947.

ThanX 4 sharing this interesting picture!

Still can’t beat the big old radials that made aircraft as large as this possible prior to the gas turbines invention. One of those engineering marvels with exterior lubrication as a standard feature. Engine and aircraft all designed with pencil and paper.