| Type N | |
|---|---|
| |
| RFC Morane-Saulnier Type N Bullet, fitted with the immense "casserole" spinner | |
| Role | fighter |
| Manufacturer | Aéroplanes Morane-Saulnier |
| First flight | 22 July 1914 |
| Introduction | 1915 |
| Primary users | Aéronautique Militaire Royal Flying Corps Imperial Russian Air Service |
| Number built | 49 |
| Variants | Morane-Saulnier I Morane-Saulnier V |
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.
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.
.jpg)
Data from War Planes of the First World War :Volume Five [1]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
