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The Breguet 697 was the designation given to a standard Br 691 attack bomber given more powerful engines in an attempt to prove that the aircraft could be used as a heavy fighter. The Br 691 had after all been developed from the earlier Br 690, which had been designed as a fighter. The single Br 697 was produced by fitting the seventeenth Br 691 with two 1,070hp Gnôme & Rhône 14N 48.49 radial engines. It made its maiden flight on 19 October 1939 and was successful enough to convince the French Air Ministry to order two prototype fighters under the designation Breguet 700 C2.