Mauboussin M.120

The Mauboussin M.120 was a trainer and touring aircraft built in France in the 1930s and again in the years following World War II.

Design and production
It was based on a 1931 Peyret-Mauboussin collaboration between Louis Peyret and Pierre Mauboussin, the Peyret-Mauboussin PM.XII, and like it, was a low-wing cantilever monoplane of wooden construction. The undercarriage was of fixed tailskid type, and the pilot and instructor sat in tandem, open cockpits. Mauboussin built a number of prototypes himself, followed by a small series manufactured for him by Breguet in 1934.

At one stage Mauboussins were produced by the Société Zodiac.

In 1936, Fouga, then a builder of railway rolling stock, purchased all rights to the design as part of an effort to enter the aircraft industry and was able to secure a contract from the Armée de l'Air to supply the type as the M.123.

Production was restarted by Fouga after the war for the French flying clubs.

Operations
One of first M.120s took part in the international touring aircraft contest Challenge 1932, flown by André Nicolle. It completed contest on the last 24th place, but it had the weakest engine of all participants and completing this contest was quite a success anyway. Two competed the following year, one of them with an all-women crew for probably the first time. Again, low engine power left them low in the final table.

After the Angers competition on 2 August 1933, one of the women (Hélène Boucher) set a new women's world altitude record at 5900 m in the M.120. In 1935 Maryse Hilsz increased it to 7388 m on 24 September in the M.122.

Variants

 * M.120:original design with 60 hp Salmson 9Adr engine
 * M.120/32:examples built by Mauboussin (3 built)
 * M.120/34:examples built by Breguet (10 built)
 * M.120/37:
 * M.121:as M.120 but with supercharged Salmson 9A 68 - 80 hp
 * M.121P Corsaire Major:version with Pobjoy Cataract engine (4 built)
 * M.122 Corsaire Major:version with Salmson 9Aers engine for Maryse Hilsz (1 built)
 * M.123:major production version with Salmson 9Adr engine (65 built)
 * M.123C: Continental A65 engine
 * M.123M: 70 hp Minié engine.
 * M.123R: 60 hp Régnier engine.
 * M.123T: 60 hp Train engine.
 * Metalair 1: a derivative of the M.123
 * Grenet PG-2 Bison:
 * M.124:first postwar version with Aster 4A engine (1 built)
 * M.125:version with Régnier 4Jo engine (5 built)
 * M.126:version with Salmson 5Ap engine (1 built)
 * M.127:version with Régnier 4Eo engine (2 built)
 * M.128:version with Mathis G4R engine (1 built)
 * M.129:pre-war version with Minié 4.DA 25 engine
 * M.129/48:definitive postwar version with Minié 4.DA 28 engine (23 built)
 * Mauboussin-Zodiac 17:Designation for Zodiac produced M.120 aircraft

Operators

 * French Air Force
 * French Air Force