Morane-Saulnier H Explained

The Morane-Saulnier H was an early aircraft first flown in France in the months immediately preceding the First World War; it was a single-seat derivative of the successful Morane-Saulnier G with a slightly reduced wingspan[1] [2] Like the Type G, it was a successful sporting and racing aircraft: examples serving with the French army were used in the opening phases of the war.

German versions, the Fokker Eindecker fighters, were armed with forward-firing machine guns and became the first single-seat fighter aircraft so armed.

Service use

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. French-built 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. The British Royal Flying Corps also acquired a small number, impressing three civilian-owned aircraft on the outbreak of the war, and ordering 36 machines Grahame-White, who was manufacturing the type in the UK under licence in two batches. The RFC mainly used the Type Hs for training, with only one example seeing service with operational squadrons (4 and 12 Squadrons).[5]

German copies

A German-built copy entered production as the Fokker M.5 in 1913: it featured a slightly longer fuselage, framed in steel tube rather than wood, a comma shaped rudder, and a redesigned undercarriage integrated with the under-wing bracing pylons. When armed in 1915 with a synchronised machine gun it became the first of the Fokker "Eindecker" monoplane fighters.[6]

The type was also produced under licence in Germany by the Pfalz Flugzeugwerke: during the war the company built armed versions as the E.I, E.II, E.IV, E.V, and E.VI, with increasingly powerful engines. Like the better known Fokkers, with which they were often confused by Allied airmen, these were armed with a single, synchronised lMG 08 machine gun.[7] [8]

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 versions

Operators

Germany

References

Bibliography

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Taylor 1989, p.648
  2. "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft", p.2539
  3. Hartmann 2001, p. 11
  4. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1913/1913%20-%201052.html Flying the Mediterranean
  5. Bruce 1982, pp. 287–289
  6. Brannon (1996), pp.7-9
  7. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft, p.2698
  8. Grosz 1996
  9. Herris 2001, p.10
  10. Herris 2001, p.16
  11. Herris 2001, p.21
  12. Herris 2001, p.24
  13. Herris 2001, p.25
  14. Grosz 1996, p.27

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