The Bréguet XIV was a French reconnaissance and bomber biplane built from the end of the year 1916 until the middle of the 20s. It is an emblematic aeroplane of the Great War because it was the first one to have a tubular steel structure and also because it was very widespread aircraft in the French squadrons because of its simple engine and of its very good resistance. The Br.XIV is also known in France under the name of "l'avion de l'Armistice" (the aeroplane of the Armistice) because it was an aircraft of this type which carried one of the German high commander at Rethondes for sign the Armistice of 11 November 1918.
After the war, the young society called Société des Lignes Latécoère, an airpost company created in 1918, was obliged to buy and to build this type of aircrafts. This society will become famous thanks to its pilots who crossed the Pyrenees, Spain, the strait of Gibraltar and the Sahara. The society take the name, in 1921, of Compagnie Générale de l'Aéropostale, better known as Aéropostale, in the one will fly Jean Mermoz, the first man to cross the Andes and to escape of its hell, Henri Guillaumet, the survivor of the Andes, he crashed there and exit alive of those mountains after 5 days and will say "What I did, same a beast would never did it.", and of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the famous French writer autor of "The Little Prince" and of "Wind, Sand and Stars".

This one is the civilian version used by the Société des Lignes Latécoère and by the Aéropostale for cross the Sahara in the 20s. It has the reputation to have one of the worst engine of the world because it often break down but was use because of the simplicity of this engine which permitted to repairs it in the middle of the desert.

Caracteristics:
First flight: 21 November 1916
Engine: Renault 12 Fe or 12 Fcx V-engine
Wingspan: 14.36m
Lenght: 8.87m
Weight: 1 127kg
Max. speed: 185km/h
Max. celling: 5 750m
Range: 700km
Crew: 1 pilot and 1 gunner/observator (military variant) OR 1 pilot and 1 mechanic or interpreter with the possibility of a third passenger (civilian variant)
Armement: 1 Vickers machin gun of 7.7mm fixed on the engine hood; 2 Lewis machine guns of 7.65mm in defense at the rear post; 300kg of load.