The Bernard 260 C1 was a French all-metal, single-engine, low-wing monoplane with an open cockpit and fixed undercarriage, designed to a government single-seat fighter specification issued in 1930.
[1] The 260 was the most advanced aircraft of the group of prototypes, equipped with almost full-span Handley Page slots as well as flaps on its low cantilever wing.
Each wheel of the 260's fixed, tailwheel undercarriage was mounted on a vertical, faired main leg, with a second strut behind forming a V and a third inboard to the fuselage underside.
For the first flight, made by Roger Baptiste in September 1932, a boxed chin radiator was used but was soon replaced by a pair of vertical units attached to the undercarriage legs.
[1] In March 1933 the 260 was fitted with a sliding glass canopy, but the military feared the rear view would be lost and it was quickly removed.
[1] The Bernard 260 flew for more than 100 hours and made several hundred takeoffs and landings at the military test centre at Villacoublay but, in the end, no contract was awarded.
[1] The end of the 260 programme also finished two proposed developments: the 261, which would have had the more powerful, 642 kW (861 hp), Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs and a retractable undercarriage and the 262, a carrier-borne fighter with arrestor hook etc.