Evening All,
The Morane Saulnier Type L Parasol monoplane was designed in 1913 and first flew in August of that year. It was designated MoS 3. It was ordered in large numbers by the French Air Force and was intended to be used for reconnaissance, but following the outbreak of hostilities it was found to be faster than German two-seaters so that crews were encouraged to take up a rifle and try to shoot down their opponents.
In 1914 Saulnier had devised a synchronising gear for a machine gun and the French army supplied a Hotchkiss so that trials could be carried out. Unfortunately the ammunition proved to be unreliable and the idea was dropped.
Saulnier continued to experiment with a fixed machine gun armament by fitting steel plates to the propellor blades with the intention that the softer brass bullets from a machine gun would be deflected if they struck a plate. This idea was experimented with by Roland Garros who had earned a pre-war reputation as a stunt pilot.
In April 1915 Garros managed to shoot down three aircraft in three weeks - a considerable achievement for the time. However in that month the petrol pie in his aircraft was fractured by a rifle bullet and he had to land behind the enemy lines. Before he could set fire to his aircraft he was captured and the secret of his success was discovered. A Fokker then adapted a synchronising gear which he fitted to one of his E11 monoplanes and the “Fokker Scourge” was started.
On 7 June 1915 sub-Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford flying with No 1 Squadron RNAS from Dunkirk intercepted Zeppelin LZ 37 and managed to climb above it so that he could drop his 25lb bombs on it, successfully destroying the airship in the process. For this remarkable feat he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Approximately 600 Type L Parasols were built and were flown by the French Air Service, the RFC and RNAS, and the Imperial Russian Air Service. In addition they were built under license by Pfalz in Germany as the AI and AII unarmed reconnaissance machines, and as an armed E III.
Morane Saulnier Parasols were not popular or easy aircraft to fly. The following quotations are taken from Cecil Lewis’ Saggitarius Rising - his account of his flying experience in the RFC and later. He flew the type LA Parasol which had a rounded fuselage but was otherwise very similar to the type L.
“There was a machine standing in one of the hangars which had been pointed out to me casually, as one points to a rattlesnake in a Zoo and passes on to more congenial creatures, as a Moraine. I had heard of it, of course, It was one of the recognised death traps which pilots in training prayed they might never have to fly…….. Pilots trained on ordinary Avro’s and (B.E) 2c’s, when turned loose on Moraines killed themselves with alarming rapidity.”
Lewis explained why they were so difficult to control:
“None of the Moraines had any tail plane…..the Moraine contented itself with the elevator, the moveable flap, only. And this elevator was a balanced elevator…..the least movement stood you on your head or on your tail. You couldn’t leave the machine to its own devices for a moment; you had to fly it every moment you were in the air.The other controls, just to make it more difficult, were practically non-existent…….Never, even when you knew the machine inside out, could you relax for a second….. Subsequently I flew every machine used by the Air Force during the war. They were all child’s play after the Morane.”
However Lewis did have some good words for the type because he also wrote:
“ I had a look over her, and the more I saw of her the less I liked her. It was certainly not love at first sight, nor even at second or third sight; but I did come to love the Morane as I loved no other aeroplane. She carried me right through the Somme battle. I did all my best work on her…..I flew her for over three hundred hours, and never during all that time did I have a crash of any kind, and only one case of engine failure! Good old Parasol.”
I was unable to find a suitable serial number for my model, so this represents a generic machine as flown by the RNAS in 1915.
Thanks for looking.
Stephen
