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)

Polikarpov MU-1

The Polikarpov MU-1 was a basic floatplane Soviet trainer airplane.
It was powered by the 120hp M-2 engine which was also a copy of the original British one and was produced from 1925 until 1929.
Due to the larger, but lighter floats, it was 170Kg lighter than the original 504L which was the original floatplane version of the 504K.
It only served with the Soviet Workers and Peasant's Air Fleet as a trainer in the Sevastopol Maritime Flying School and saw also service in the training squadron of the Baltic Fleet, based in Leningrad during the 1920s. Apparently it was also briefly used as a scouting airplane for the Baltic Fleet. Seventy three machines were made and some of them served until 1934.

Sources:
1. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/У-1 (translated)
2. http://www.airwar.ru/enc/other1/mu1.html (translated)
3. http://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/108785

Polikarpov U-1

Preliminary note: This is some kind of special post as we're covering the Russian copy of the Avro 504K because it has some very interesting backstory.

The Polikarpov U-1 was the Soviet unauthorized copy of the Avro 504K. It all started during the Russian civil war, when am Avro 504K belonging to the British-Slavonic Air Corps (which was sided with the White Russians) crashed near the city of Petrozavosk and the engineer Sergey Ilyushin received the order of going to that zone to recover the airplane and dissasemble it. It was re-assembled again and pushed into service for the remainer of the war, with such good results that another engineer, Nikolai Polikarpov decied to copy it. Under Soviet command, it showed good results, as it served in their different pilot schools from 1921 until 1932 and in some cases until 1935. It also set a new record in the Soviet Air Force as it was the basis for the first experiments with solid propellant rocket boosters takeoff.

It also served in many Asiatic countries. Apparently it served with the Chinese Aviation Ministry, with the Imperial Iranian Air Force and with Mongolia.
The Persians bought them together with some Polikarpov R-1 and R-2, as the United Kingdom refused to sell them airplanes alleging that the terms of the treaty of Versailles forbid the sale of weaponry.
Apparently it also was the backbone of the early Mongolian People's Army Aviation as it served as their main trainer during the 1920s and most probably during the 1930s.

Sources:
1. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/У-1 (translated)
2. http://www.airwar.ru/enc/other1/u1.html (translated)
3. http://defence.pk/threads/imperial-iranian-airforce.138734/
4. http://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/108784

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