Thursday, 10 March 2022

Morane-Saulnier TRK

 
The Morane-Saulnier TRK was a triplane bomber which was completed in 1915 and intended to take part in the 1915 or 1916 contest for a heavy bomber.
It was powered by two Canton-Unné engines rated at 230 hp placed inside the fuselage. The engines drove two two-bladed propellers using a complex transmission system. Each propeller was placed on either side of the fuselage between lower and middle wings. It was equipped with a fixed landing gear consisting on a pair of wheels under each wing plus two other wheels under the nose to prevent nose-over when landing. In fact this landing gear configuration was identical to that already seen in the Type S and Type T.
Both pilot and copilot sat side-by-side in the nose cockpit with an mechanic/gunner located in another cockpit placed behind the wings and intended to attend the engines when flying or operate the defensive machine guns. It was armed with just two 0.303 in Lewis machine guns placed on a ring in the second cockpit, although it's not known if armament was ever installed. Only one prototype was built, which received the official denomination of MoS.9, and it's unknown if it ever flew. Anyway, the TRK did not enter neither the 1915 nor the 1916 heavy bomber contest. It's also unknown its bomb payload amount, however, we estimate it was similar to that of the Type S. Wikipedia claims it was intended to carry bombs internally, however, we highly doubt it. 
Considering its rather feeble defensive armament, its size and, therefore, its more than expected slow speed, the TRK wouldn't have had good performance numbers. Anyway, we decided to draw a hypothetical version. 









Sources:
1. Flying Machines Press - French Aircraft of the First World War
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_TRK

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