The Morane-Saulnier Ms.470 'Vanneau' (French word for 'Plover' - the bird) was a two-seater trainer prototype that was the first of its family and served both with Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) and Aéronavale (French Navy's Air Arm) in the post-war.
During German Invasion of France in 1940 just before the French armistice, Morane-Saulnier's chief designer, Paul-René Gauthier aided in evacuating their factory at Villacoublay, a town close to Paris. Morane-Saulnier was re-established in the Vichy area with Gauthier becoming the head of the new factory. Work continued on various designs, among them, the Ms.470, hoping that it could be used after the war.
The Ms.470 was a two-seat trainer with a crew of two, trainee and instructor, sitting in tandem under a long-glass canopy. It was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with an inward-retracting landing gear that fitted the wheels in a recess, leaving them partially exposed. This was done on purpose to make them act as a buffer in case of a wheels-up landing in order to minimize damage to the main fuselage. It was powered by a single Hispano-Suiza 12X inline engine rated at 690 hp, driving a three-bladed propeller. The Ms.470 was unarmed, however it's not clear if it was intended to have any kind of armament as subsequent versions (namely the Ms.472 'Vanneau II') were armed.
The prototype Ms.470 flew for the first time on 22nd December 1944 at Puteaux, in Paris, after the Morane-Saulnier's factory was liberated by the Allies. It was tested by the late-war Armée de l'Air (Technically it was still named 'Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres - Free French Air Forces) and approved for production one year later in an improved version, the Ms.472, which, together with the other variants such as the Ms.474 and Ms.475 one of the main French trainer aircraft of the post-war.
Sources:
1. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_morane_saulnier_MS470_vanneau.html
2. https://www.armedconflicts.com/Morane-Saulnier-MS-470-Vanneau-t16346
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_Vanneau
4. http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/morane_ms-470.php
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