Morane-Saulnier N

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 MoS-5 C1. 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.

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, appearing much like those used on the Deperdussin Monocoque pre-war racer of 1912, 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.

Morane-Saulnier manufactured 49 aircraft but the model was quickly rendered obsolete by the pace of aircraft development at that time.

Variants

 * Morane-Saulnier Type N
 * Single-seat fighter-scout monoplane.


 * Morane-Saulnier Type Nm
 * The Type Nm had a modified tail unit. Built in small numbers.


 * Morane-Saulnier I
 * more powerful version with 110 Le Rhône 9J.


 * Morane-Saulnier V
 * Longer range version of I.

Operators

 * Aeronautique Militaire
 * Russian Empire
 * Imperial Russian Air Force
 * Ukraine1918.png Ukrainian People's Republic
 * Ukrainian People's Republic Air Fleet - Three aircraft.
 * Royal Flying Corps
 * No. 4 Squadron RFC
 * No. 60 Squadron RFC
 * No. 4 Squadron RFC
 * No. 60 Squadron RFC