Top speed 144 km/h Length 5.83 m | Wingspan 8.14 m Weight 288 kg First flight July 22, 1914 | |
The Morane-Saulnier N, also known as the Morane-Saulnier Type N, was a French monoplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. Designed and manufactured by Morane-Saulnier, the Type N entered service in April 1915 with the Aéronautique Militaire designated as the MS.5 C.1. It also equipped four squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps, in which it was nicknamed the Bullet, and was operated in limited numbers by the 19th Squadron of the Imperial Russian Air Force.
Contents
Description
While the Type N was a clean, streamlined aircraft, it was not easy to fly due to a combination of stiff lateral control caused by using wing warping instead of ailerons, sensitive pitch and yaw controls caused by using an all flying tail, and very high landing speed for the period. The Type N mounted a single unsynchronized forward-firing 7.9 mm Hotchkiss machine gun which used the deflector wedges first used on the Morane-Saulnier Type L, in order to fire through the propeller arc. The later I and V types used a .303-in Vickers machine gun.
A large metal "casserolle" spinner was designed to streamline the aircraft but caused the engines to overheat. In 1915, the spinners were removed and the overheating problems disappeared with little loss in performance.
49 aircraft were built but it was quickly rendered obsolete by the pace of aircraft development.
Variants
Operators
Specifications (Type N)
Data from War Planes of the First World War, Volume Five.
General characteristics
Performance
Armament