Morane-Saulnier Type N

History

The Moraine-Saulnier Type N (or simply "Moraine-Saulnier N") was a French fighter of the First World War. It appeared in limited production numbers (only 49 aircraft in total) and was quickly replaced by more advanced platforms.

The plane itself was a major aerodynamic victory, using air-deflecting spinners in the front end of the design and wing warping (a patented design technique of the Wright Brothers) instead of the moving water surface common in other aircraft of the war airplane.

Model N entered service in 1915. It came with an advanced aerodynamic monoplane design, with most of the fuselage width going to the 110-horsepower Le Rhone 9C rotary engine. The wings were designed to remain far away and mounted high. The landing gear consists of two bicycle-style wheels, also fixed forward. The pilot sits in the open-air cockpit aft of the engine, with clear visibility under the nose and wings, with only a small windshield to keep out oncoming debris.

The obvious propeller spinner is the most striking part of the N-Type design, as it gave the aircraft a design that was way ahead of its time. Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that the large metal spinner was actually the cause of the engine overheating and was removed from future deliveries. This effectively solved all of Le Rhone's engine heater issues, but removed one of the plane's most ingenious parts in the process.

Interestingly, removing this component did not improve or degrade the overall performance of the aircraft.

The weapon consists of a .303 caliber machine gun, interchangeably of the Vickers or Hotchkiss design. At the time, simultaneous or intermittent machine gun firing of propeller blades was generally still under review and development, forcing the Model N to adopt an ad hoc approach developed by Raymond Solnier himself.

The machine gun fired directly into the rotating propeller blades, each of which was fitted with a whipstock. Wedges are known to reduce the power of the rotating blade somewhat, but still allow machine gun fire.

Essentially, the operator can fire the machine gun at will, although the actual number of projectiles passing through the rotating blades seems random and is hardly practical in dogfights - but the idea is better than carrying rifles and pistols in the air .Although both sides inevitably deployed their synchronized fire mechanisms during the war, the Germans first used the concept in 1915 with their Fokker platform. Interruptible machine gun systems were used until the Korean War, when the jet age revolutionized all aspects of dogfighting.

The Morane-Saulnier Model N was used by the French Air Force (as MS.5C.1) along with the British (they called it "the Bullet") and the Imperial Russian Air Force. In practice, the aircraft proved to be one of the few that could fly and land. The wing twist method undoubtedly increases operational hazards and requires a trained pilot to operate the machine for any length of time.

The landing speed was reported to be high, adding another source of danger to controllers.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes