Satisfying the French Air Force requirement, the prototype Potez 54 eventually graduated its flight-testing phase to become the Potez 540 in service. Production models were equipped with 1 x Hispano-Suiza 12Xirs and 1 x Hispano-Suiza 12Xjrs V-12 inline piston engines developing 790 horsepower each and one-hundred eighty-five were built to the standard. These were taken into service by the nations of France and Spain.
As built, the aircraft could reach speeds of 193 miles per hour and out to a range of 780 miles. Its service ceiling was 33,000 feet. During this period of aviation history, these values seemed useful enough for a bombing platform but direct combat actions would soon tell a different story.
The Potez 540's baptism of fire arrived with its exposure to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) where it was fielded by the forces loyal to the standing government. By this time, however, the reconnaissance-bomber design was already poorly-equipped to handle the rigors of the modern battlefield and this point was painfully proven when the aircraft was forced to tangle with all-modern, metal-skinned German and Italian monoplane and biplane fighters. This quickly led the Potez 540 to receive a poor valuation in-the-field as an obsolescent and forgettable bomber - its defensive machine gun scheme was simply not being up to the task and its structure proved too fragile for direct combat. Even the French saw the writing on the wall for their relatively new fleet of reconnaissance bombers were quickly set up to undertake training and transport roles for the near-future. Before the end, they were equipping far-off colonial air services within the French sphere of influence - primarily across North Africa. Another Axis-aligned operator of the type during the war became the Italian Regia Aeronautica while the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had also purchased a single aircraft as the "Potez CXP" flying boat.
With the Fall of France in June of 1940, what was left of the French Potez 540 fleet was taken into service by the newly-established, Axis-aligned Vichy French Air Force. These remained stationed primarily in overseas locations for purely defensive/deterrent purposes as their value continued to remain questionable. Before the end of 1943, the line was given up for good and largely scrapped if not lost in action.
Beyond the primary Model 540 there was the one-off Potez 541 which made the switch to the Gnome-Rhone 14Kdrs air-cooled radial piston engine of 720 horsepower. The Model 541 also formed the basis for the export-minded Potez 543 which used the same Gnome-Rhone 14Kdrs engines. Ten of these were built for export to the eventually-Axis-aligned Kingdom of Romania but only eight of these were actually delivered - four were sent to the Spanish government for support in their bloody civil war against Nationalist forces.
The Potez 542 was another notable variant of the line but based back in the original Potez 540. This product differed by using 2 x Lorraine 12Hfrs "Petrel" V12 engines of 720 horsepower. This variant was used by both France and Spain for its time in the air and production reached seventy-four units.
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