Morane-Saulnier L

The Morane-Saulnier L, or Morane-Saulnier Type L, or officially MoS-3, was a French parasol wing one or two-seat scout aeroplane of the First World War. The Type L became one of the first successful fighter aircraft when it was fitted with a single machine gun that fired through the arc of the propeller, which was protected by armoured deflector wedges. Its immediate effectiveness in this role launched an arms race in fighter development, and the Type L was swiftly rendered obsolete. The original Type L used wing warping for lateral control, but a later version designated Type LA was fitted with ailerons.

Built by Morane-Saulnier, large numbers of the Type L were ordered by the French Aviation Militaire at the outbreak of the war. In total about 600 Type Ls were built and, in addition to the French air force, they served with the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and the Imperial Russian Air Service.

The type was also produced under licence in Germany by Pfalz Flugzeugwerke as the unarmed A.I and A.II scouts (with 80 HP and 100 HP Oberursel engines respectively). About 60 were built for Bavarian air service. A few were later modified as the E.III fighters.

About 450 aircraft were licence-built in Russia by Duks and Lebed works.

The Morane-Saulnier L was also built under licence in Sweden with some minor improvements as the Thulin D.

Operational history

thumb|A propeller from an M-S Type L, complete with deflector wedges and supporting "tiebars".

In December 1914 the famous French aviator Roland Garros, then serving with Escadrille 23, worked with Raymond Saulnier to create a gun synchronizer, using the gas operated Hotchkiss light machine gun. However the firing rate fluctuated too much for the synchronizer to function properly. As an interim measure, they then designed a "safety backup" in the form of braced "deflectors" (metal wedges) fitted to the rear surfaces of the propeller blades at the points where they could be struck by a bullet. with a further 25 being operated by the Royal Naval Air Service. On 7 June 1915 one of these aircraft, flown by Flight Sub-Lieutenant Reginald Alexander John Warneford of 1 Squadron RNAS intercepted the Deutsches Heer-flown Zeppelin LZ.37, destroying it, the first Zeppelin to be destroyed in the air. Warneford received the Victoria Cross for this achievement.

Cecil Lewis served with the RFC's Squadron Number 3 in 1916 through the Somme offensive. He flew the Type LA "Parasol" (as it was known) operationally, for over three hundred hours and was awarded the Military Cross. Most of that flying was conducted on a single airframe, RFC serial 5133. In his book "Sagittarius Rising" he recalled of the LA:

:"I had a look over her, and the more I saw of her the less I liked her. It was certainly not love at first sight . . . the elevator was as sensitive as a gold balance; the least movement stood you on your head or on your tail. You couldn't leave the machine to its own devices for a moment . . . the Morane really was a death trap . . . Subsequently I flew every machine used by the Air Force during the war. They were all child's play after the Morane . . . but I did come to love the Morane as I loved no other aeroplane."

A Morane-Saulnier "Parasol" was used for the first flight by an airplane across the Andes on April 13, 1918, when the Argentine aviator Luis Candelaria flew from Zapala, Argentina, to Cunco, Chile; the flight lasted 2 hours 30 minutes and reached an altitude of 4,000 meters.

Variants

L company designation for basic model
MoS-3 official government/STAe designation for L
LA company designation for improved L with faired fuselage and ailerons
MoS-4 official government/STAe designation for LA
LH fighter developed from LA
MoS-20 official government/STAe designation for LH
Pfalz A.I with Oberursel U.0 engine

|prime units?=met

|crew=2

|length m=6.88

|span m=11.20

|height m=3.93

|wing area sqm=18.3

|wing area note=

|empty weight kg=393

|gross weight kg=667.5

|more general=

|eng1 number=1

|eng1 name=Le Rhône 9C

|eng1 type=9-cylinder air-cooled rotary piston engine

|eng1 kw=60

|prop blade number=2

|prop name=fixed-pitch propeller

|prop dia m=

|prop dia note=

|max speed kmh=125

|range km=

|endurance=

|ceiling m=

|climb rate ms=

|time to altitude= in 8 minutes

|wing loading kg/m2=

|power/mass=

|thrust/weight=

|more performance=

|guns=1 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis gun

References

Notes

Bibliography

Angelucci, Enzo. The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, 1914-1980. San Diego, California: The Military Press, 1983. .
Bruce, J.M. Morane Saulnier Type L - Windsock Datafile 16. Herts, UK: Albatros Publications, 1989. .
Bruce, J.M. The Aeroplanes of the Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing). London: Putnam, 1982. .
Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. The Complete Book of Fighters. New York: Smithmark, 1994. .
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1985.
Nicolle, David. The Ottoman Army 1914-1918: Disease and Death on the Battlefield. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1994. .
Taylor, Michael J. H. Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions, 1989.
Thetford, Owen. British Naval Aircraft since 1912. London: Putnam, Fourth edition, 1978. .