Morane-Saulnier H

Type H
Morane Saulnier Type H on display at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace at Paris Le Bourget airport
Role Sport aircraft
Manufacturer Morane-Saulnier
First flight 1913
Developed from Morane-Saulnier G
Variants Morane-Saulnier L

The Morane-Saulnier H was a sport aircraft produced in France in the years before the First World War,[1][2] a single-seat derivative of the successful Morane-Saulnier G with a slightly reduced wingspan[2] Like the Type G, it was a successful sporting and racing aircraft.

Operational history

Royal Flying Corps Morane-Saulnier H built by Grahame-White

During the second international aero meet, held at Wiener Neustadt in June 1913, Roland Garros won the precision landing prize in a Type H.[3] Later that same year, A Morane-Saulnier H was used to complete the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean, from Fréjus in the south of France to Bizerte in Tunisia.[4]

The French Army ordered a batch of 26 aircraft under the designation MoS.1, and the British Royal Flying Corps also acquired a small number, these latter machines purchased from Grahame-White, who was manufacturing the type in the UK under licence.[2] The French machines saw limited service in the opening stages of World War I, with pilots carrying out reconnaissance missions and occasionally engaging in aerial combat using revolvers and carbines.[2]

The type was also produced under licence in Germany by Pfalz Flugzeugwerke, who built it as the E.I, E.II, E.IV, E.V, and E.VI, with increasingly powerful engines.[5][6] These were armed with a single, synchronised lMG 08 machine gun.[5][6]

Another slightly longer German-built copy featured a steel-framed fuselage, a redesigned undercarriage integrated with the under-wing bracing pylons and a comma shaped rudder. It entered production as the Fokker M.5 and when armed in 1915 with a synchronised machine gun became first of the Fokker "Eindecker" monoplane fighters.[7]

Survivors

A Type H is preserved at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace in Le Bourget and another at the Fantasy of Flight in Florida. Several replicas are in museums or flying.

Variants

Morane-Saulnier versions

Pfalz E.I side view

Pfalz versions

Operators

Swiss Morane-Saulnier H
 France
 Austria-Hungary
 Belgium
 Denmark
 Germany
 Portugal
 United Kingdom
 Russia
  Switzerland

Specifications

Data from flugzeuginfo.net

General characteristics

Performance

Notes

  1. ↑ Taylor 1989, p.648
  2. 1 2 3 4 "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft", p.2539
  3. ↑ Hartmann 2001, 11
  4. ↑ Flying the Mediterranean Flight 27 September 1913
  5. 1 2 The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft, p.2698
  6. 1 2 Grosz 1996
  7. ↑ Brannon (1996), pp.7-9
  8. ↑ Herris 2001, p.10
  9. ↑ Herris 2001, p.16
  10. ↑ Herris 2001, p.21
  11. ↑ Herris 2001, p.24
  12. ↑ Herris 2001, p.25
  13. ↑ Grosz 1996, p.27

References

Bibliography

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