René Barbaro was a test flight engineer with Sud Aviation who designed, built and flew several aircraft in the 1960s and early 1970s. Most of these were single engine light aircraft, though he died in July 1972 flying his only twin engine design, the
Barbaro RB.70. The Aéro-Club Airbus France Toulouse René Barbaro bears his name. The RB-50 was of mixed construction. It had a high-mounted, wooden-structured,
cantilever wing with a
trapezoidal plan, built around a single
spar and
fabric-covered.
Ailerons and
slotted flaps filled the wing
trailing edges. The flaps were mechanically operated, with a maximum deflection of 37°. It was powered by a nose-mounted
Continental C90 air-cooled
flat-four engine, driving a two-blade, fixed-pitch
propeller. The forward and central sections of the
fuselage were formed from a riveted light alloy girder frame with a metal skin. The centre section contained the fuel tank, which was an integral part of the structure supporting the seats and also, indirectly, the
main wheel legs of the conventional, tail wheel undercarriage. Short, horizontal
aerofoiled extensions from the front of the tank positioned these short, vertical legs safely beyond the cabin and tank, at the same time increasing the undercarriage track. The two occupants sat side by side under the wing
leading edge with dual
control columns unusually suspended from the roof for ease of access. The cabin had a single-piece windscreen and three separate windows, decreasing in size rearwards, on each side; on the port side the forward window was part of a large door. The rear fuselage was a wooden
semi-monocoque which dropped down behind the cabin. The RB-50's tail unit was also all-wooden, with a cantilever
tailplane mounted on top of the fuselage. The port
elevator carried a
trim tab. Its
fin had a swept, straight leading edge, leading to a rounded top and an
unbalanced rudder, also tapered with a slightly curved trailing edge and extending down to the keel. The tail wheel was strut-mounted to the extreme rear fuselage. According to Gaillard, the RB-50 flew for the first time on 9 October 1960, though Chillon suggests 9 October 1963. It was registered on 30 July 1964 to the
Toulouse Aero Club. Little is known about the modifications that were made that led to a new type number,
RB-51. Gaillard suggests this happened in 1963, but the record gives the name change date as May 1969. The Certificate of Airworthiness was suspended on 30 March 1970, then removed, and the aircraft's record marked destroyed. ==Variants==