Morane-Saulnier Type AI

 

The Morane-Saulnier AI was a French parasol-wing fighter which was developed during World War I. 

In 1916 Morane-Saulnier designed the Type P two-seater reconnaissance parasol-wing aircraft, but it wasn't successful, so they moved on to design new types of fighters. Namely the Type AF biplane fighter and the parasol-wing AI which was itself a refinement of the Type N fighter with the intention of replacing both the Nieuport 17 and the SPAD S.VII. 

The AI was mainly of conventional construction. The fuselage had a circular cross section built around a wooden framework, the flat wing was swept back with a section in the middle cut to improve pilot's field of view. It was hold by parallel lift struts which ran from the base of the forward section of the fuselage to two thirds the way along the wing and braced with a pair of compression struts. Strength tests on the wings showed that this arrangement should've been safe. 

It was powered by a single Gnome Monosoupape 9N radial engine which yielded 150 hp of power and drove a two-bladed propeller.

The first prototype, which flew for the first time in 1917, was armed with a single Vickers 0.303 in machine gun placed on the nose and was given the official designation of Morane-Saulnier MoS.27 by the French Aéronautique Militaire (Military Aeronautics - the forerunner of the Armée de l'Air). It was tested at Villacoublay, in Seinte-et-Oise department, on 7th and 9th August 1917 manned by Eugene Gilbert. Further trials made in September, judged the aircraft as very maneuverable, with excellent control response and an excellent field of view for the pilot.

Work on a second version, the MoS. 29 was underway in September. This version differed from the MoS.27 in having two machine guns and had a slightly larger tail surface, but, otherwise, it was similar to the MoS.27. 

The Type AI was ordered into mass production and a total of 1.210 machines, mostly of the MoS.29 variant, were produced. It entered service in early 1918 and it served with the following three Escadrilles (Squadrons) of the Aéronautique Militaire; N.156 (which became M.S.P. 156 in February 1918), N.161 (which became M.S.P. 161) and N.158 (which became M.S.P. 158). 

The MoS.29 proved to be popular among its pilots who praised its speed and maneuverability, however, in service conditions, the wing proved to be very weak. In fact, some aircraft were lost when their wing either came off or folded in mid-air killing their pilots. The reason was never investigated, it was probably related to wing flutter or a similar phenomenon unknown in those years. By mid-May the Type AI was relegated from frontline service. 

Morane-Saulnier then answered by converting the MoS.27/29 into an advanced trainer by removing guns ,reducing fuel capacity and introducing extra wing bracings. This trainer variant received the denomination of MoS.30 and was made in two sub-variants, the standard MoS.30, powered by a single Le Rhône 9Jb engine, which delivered a power of 135 hp and the MoS.30bis powered by a de-rated Le Rhône 9Jby engine rated at 90-95 hp of power. 

The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was shown the MoS.29, to check their interest on the type on 12th August 1917, but Hugh Trenchard, chief of the RFC rejected it. The MoS.30 was, however exported as trainers to various countries:

• Belgium: During the last stages of the World War I three machines were sold to the Belgian Aviation Militaire, which assigned them to the 9e Escadrille (9th Squadron). 
• Czechoslovakia: The newly created Czechoslovak Army Air Force, had one MoS.30 in service in 1919. As we couldn't find graphical information, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
• Japan: The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service evaluated a single MoS.30 in 1922. Just like the previous user in this post, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
• Poland: A total of 21 MoS.30 were exported to Poland between 1920 and 1922. They served as advanced trainers in various flying schools all around Poland until 1925 when they were replaced by more modern types like the MoS.35.
• Switzerland: The Swiss Fliegertruppe (Swiss Army Aerial Corp) operated one MoS.30 in 1919.
• USSR: A total of four MoS.30 were evaluated and used for test and trials by the Workers and Peasants' Red Air Fleet (the forerunner of the Soviet Air Force)
• USA: Fifty-one MoS.30 were purchased by the American Expeditionary Force in France and were employed at their training base at Issoudun, at the department of Indre. After the war they re-sold to other countries. We couldn't however find graphical evidence. However, we think they wouldn't differ too much from the French MoS.29, so we decided to leave them out.

Sources:

1. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_morane_saulnier_Type_AI.html

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_AI

3. http://bequickorbedead.com/article_detail/french-trainings-morane-saulnier-ms-30e1/ (translated)

4. https://www.valka.cz/Morane-Saulnier-AI-t51372 (translated)

Avro 504K European Users, part three

A little bit later, but here it is, the third post about the European users of the Avro 504K.

• Portugal: In 1923, the Portuguese Aeronautica Militar (Military Aeronautical) decided to update their training airplane fleet. In order to do so, they bought a Caudron C.59 and was confronted with an Avro 504K, which won. They were ordered on 10th November 1923 and arrived on 20th May 1924. Most of them were used in the training/school role at the Portuguese Escola Militar de Aviaçao (EMA) - Military Aviation School located in the city of Sintra, until as late as 1937. In 1925 two of them were given to the Naval Aviation, being this way the first land-based airplanes operated by the Portuguese Navy. 
• Switzerland: The Swiss Army Aviation service bought some of them and operated them in Geneva, however further details are unknown to us.
• USSR: As the USSR built it's own copy of the Avro 504K, it's known that at least one original 504K made by Avro was taken as a model and copied later through reverse engineering.

Sources:

1. http://asasdeferro.blogspot.com.es/2016/04/avro-504.html (translated)

2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

3. http://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/86602 

Hanriot HD.1 - Foreign users

Today, we are altering our criterion a little bit. Despite being a French design, it wasn't produced for French users but for foreign users, Italy and Belgium, mainly. That's why we consider France as a foreign user, despite it was manufactured in France, but also in Italy by Macchi, which manufactured more exemplars than the parent firm. Also, given the importance this airplane had in the Belgian army, we are going to reserve entries exclusively for Belgian and Italian ones.

The Hanriot HD.1 was a French single seat biplane fighter aircraft. It was rejected to serve in the French army in favour of the SPAD S.VII and thus, it was offered to both Belgian and Italian armies where it served successfully. In fact, it became the standard Italian fighter of the Great War. Of a total of 1200 airplanes built, 831 were manufactured under license by the Italian Macchi company.

This airplane, influenced by the Sopwith designs, mainly because Hanriot had produced under license the Sopwith 1/2 Strutter, was produced in 1916.

It was powered by a 110hp LeRhone rotary engine and, although it wasn't very fast, it was highly maneouvrable and was very popular among the pilots due it's easiness to control. In order to keep the good climbing and altitude numbers, it's armament was oftenly restricted to a single synchronised vickers machine gun, althought there was place for a second one. This airplane introduced a new feature (for the era): The machine guns were at the side of the cockpit and not in front, providing more safety in the case of a crash. However in the Italian built versions the machine-gun was fitted on the front of the cockpit and not at the sides.

The users covered in this entry are:

• Ecuador: The newly created Ecuadorian military aviation school bought their second airplane which named it 'Telegrafo Iº' (Telegraph 1st). It achieved renown within that country when the Italian born pilot Elia Liut crossed the Ecuadorian Andes flying that airplane.
• France: Apparently the French naval aeronautics employed some floatplane sub-variant of the HD.1 in order to defend their naval bases. It seems that they sold all their exemplars to the US Navy. As we couldn't find reliable info about how they looked like, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
• Paraguay: The Paraguayan National Air Force bought three airplanes from Italy. As we couldn't find graphical information about their colours under Paraguayan command, the drawing is speculative.
• Switzerland: The Swiss Army Aviation bought some HD.1 in order to equip their fighter squadron based in Dübendorf, near Zürich. One of them is still displayed in the Dübendorf aviation museum.
• United States: The US Naval Aircraft Factory adquired 10 HD.1 which used them to make trials on take-off platfroms from warships in the post-war years. They were also employed as advanced trainers. 
• Venezuela: The Venezuelan Military Aviation School adquired some French made HD.1 during the late 10s/early 20s in order to equip their fighter squadron.
• Austro-Hungarian Empire: It is known that at least one ex-Italian aircraft performed a forced landing in Austro-Hungarian soil and they captured the airplane and pushed it into service with their air corps.