The Ms.230 was designed to meet a requirement of the French Air Ministry issued back in 1928 for a machine in the lines of the Morane-Saulnier Ms.53 and the Morane-Saulnier Ms.130 (them both being two-seat parasol trainers of the 1920s). To such end, Morane-Saulnier re-engined a single Ms.133 with an uncovered Salmson 9Ab radial engine and fitted the landing gear from a Morane-Saulnier Ms.181 and, one year later, in 1929, the Ms.230 was presented and adopted by the Armée de l'Air.
The Ms.230 was a parasol wing monoplane of metallic tubular framing with fabric covering the whole fuselage except for the forward area, which was covered in metal. The instructor and the trainee occupied two cockpits in a tandem configuration and had a fixed landing gear, making it very stable for take off and landing. For a time when most of the trainers consisted on biplanes, the Ms.230 was, with its parasol wing, an exception.
During its first trials in February 1929, it revealed to be an excellent and stable machine which was easy to fly and also as robust as its contemporaneous fighters. Its parts were also very accessible, making it easier its maintenance and, thanks to its maneuverability and polivalence, it quickly became very popular.
The French Air Ministry ordered an initial batch of 500 machines, with production starting in March 1929, with the first production machine rolling out the factory the 15th of that month. It was presented to the public in the 1929 Michelin Cup and the 1930 Salon International de l'Aeronautique on 28th November 1930. It was assigned to every military flying school in France and was also used by the Aeronavale (French Navy's Air Arm) in French colonies like Tunisia.
Apart from the variants already covered in previous posts, namely the Ms.229, Ms.233 and Ms.236, there were also some experimental variants:
- Ms.231: Version built in 1930 which was powered by a single Lorraine 7Mb engine yielding 240 hp of power. A total of six machines were made.
- Ms.232: Single prototype made in 1930. It was fitted with a Clerget 9Ca diesel radial engine rated at 200 hp.
- Ms.234: The Ms.234 was a single machine destined to be used by the American ambassador in Paris. It was powered by a Wright J-6-9 engine (itself a license copy of the Hispano-Suiza 9Qa) which yielded 330 hp of power (though, according to other sources, it was just 250 hp)
- Ms.234/2: Racer version for the 1931 Michelin Air Race. It was powered by an Hispano-Suiza 9Qb rated at 230 hp covered with a cowl. It was flown by Michel Détroyat in subsequent editions of the Michelin Coup until 1938.
- Ms.235: Single prototype powered by a Gnome-Rhône 7Kb engine rated at 300 hp. Flew for the first time in March 1935.
- Ms.237: Five machines powered by the Salmson 9Aba engine rated at 280 hp. They were built for private owners in 1934. In 1942 the German Luftwaffe seized one machine belonging to Air France Trasatlantique.
- Ms.330: Parasol wing trainer, made entirely out of metal, destined to replace the Ms.230. It was made in 1929 but it failed to live to its expectations and wasn't ordered into mass production. It was powered by a covered Salmson 9Ab radial engine and, though externally looking similar to the 230, it had a new wing profile.
Tests revealed that it had a tendency to fall into an uncontrollable flat spin after some maneuvers and development was abandoned. However, two sub-variants, Ms.331 and Ms.332, were tested with different engines to try and solve that problem. Neither of those was successful and the project was abandoned. - Ms.530: The last in a long series of parasol trainer aircraft built by Morane-Saulnier. It was similar to the Ms.330, as it was the result of almost a decade of development. Powered by a Salmson 9ABd radial engine with a NACA cowling, rated at 280 hp. It flew for the first time on 9th September 1938, but as its performance wasn't better than the regular Ms.230, the project was abandoned.
The Wikipedia in English mentions a floater variant, the Ms.235H, but that's the only reference we have found. It's not even mentioned in the French Wikipedia page nor in the various books we have consulted.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_MS.230
2. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_MS.230 (translated)
3. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_morane_saulnier_MS330.html
4. https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/morane-saulnier-designations.911/
5. https://www.valka.cz/Morane-Saulnier-MS-230-t167614 (translated)
6. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_morane_saulnier_MS530.html
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