Morane Saulnier MS50C (oz12644)

About this Plan

Morane Saulnier MS50C. Peanut scale rubber model.

Quote: "The Peanut Perfessor journeys to WW-II Finland and returns with this interesting parasol-winged light plane that's sure to please. Morane Saulnier MS50C, by Walt Mooney.

The Morane-Saulnier M.S.50C is a classical shape for an airplane with its parasol wing. This particular design has almost as many struts as an umbrella has braces hence the classification of the MS 50C as a parasol monoplane is particularly apt. Ordinarily, a lot of struts tend to be a discouraging design characteristic for a scale model project, but the simplicity of the rest of the design is encouraging. The Finnish insignia is interesting, with its blue swastika on a white field inside of a yellow circle.

The peanut model follows standard building procedures in almost all respects, so no long put-part-A-next-to part-B write-up will be presented. What we'll cover instead is a short, incomplete list of sources of three-view drawings.

Before this list is started, two paragraphs will be devoted to the model.

Wing mounting on a model with a parasol configuration is generally tedious, so a new approach was tried on this model which is presented here for consideration. The model was completely assembled in the uncovered phase. The wing and all its struts were assembled on the fuselage as shown in the skeleton photo. Usually this is done with only the slightest amount of adhesive just to get the photo. It is easy to locate all the struts, as well as cutting them to size, when there is no covering on the model. Minimal glue was used on this model where the struts contacted the wing as usual, but the bottom end of all the struts were permanently cemented in place. After the photo of the skeleton was made, the wing was disassembled from the strut system. Next, the wing and the rest of the model was covered and finished. A little extra care is required to cover the fuselage while avoiding the struts, but this is not too difficult. Final wing assembly to the fuselage is very simple on the struts which are already secured in place.

The model is a good stable flyer, but is not one capable of long durations. As built, weighing 12-1/2 grams without its rubber motor, it is probably capable of flights of about 30 seconds. Mine did not fly right off the board. It required a little ballast on the nose to move the balance point forward to the position indicated on the plans. It also required some left rudder to open up a right turn, and a slight amount of down thrust to eliminate a stall under power. A loop of 3/32 flat rubber, twice the length of the motor base, was used to power the model on its first test flights. While this is enough power for testing, a slightly larger rubber strip should probably be used outdoors.

Now for some sources of three-views. One of the nicest is Aces of The Air by Francis K. Mason, published by Mayflower Books, and distributed by W.H. Smith Publishers Inc, 112 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. This book covers the careers of over sixty famous pilots and has color four- or five-view illustrations of the planes they flew. The plane isn't always the most familiar one either. For instance, Ernst Udet's airplane is a red fuselage Siemens Schuckert D.III, and William Bishop's is a Nieuport 17.

Another is Conquerors of the Air, The Evolution of Aircraft 1903 to 1945 by Heiner Emde and Carlo Demand, published by The Viking Press, Inc., 625 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022. This is an historical book covering most of the famous planes and pilots, and has nice color side-views of the airplanes covered plus smaller scale views of the other two aspects of the aircraft.

A great book for color schemes, (accurate and dated) with three-, four-, or five-views of all the important WW-II airplanes is Aircraft of World War Two by Bill Gunston, published by Crescent Books, a Division of Crown Publishers, Inc., One Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. This book will give you all the color and configuration detail you could desire if famous WW-II airplanes are your bag.

A book that has superb three-views of a specialized group of airplanes is The Aircraft of the Swiss Air Force Since 1914 by Jakob Urech, drawings by Emil Hunziker, translated by Leo Kaufmann and Roland Hinchliffe, published and printed in 1975 by Verlag Th Gut and Co, CH-8712 Stafa ZH. Both the Airforce Museum in Dayton, Ohio and the National Aerospace Museum in Washington, D.C. handle this book in their sales area.

Another nice source of specialized three-views is The Speed Seekers by Thomas G. Foxworth published by Doubleday & Company Inc, New York. This book is a good source of three-views and photos of racing and record setting airplanes for the years from 1919 to 1926.

There are a lot of sources for three-views available besides those mentioned above. The Observer's Book of Aircraft by William Green is a nice source that is published every year by Frederick Warne & Co Ltd, London, England. It has most of the new, important aircraft. It is a small book and the three-views are also small, but it provides a lot of new subjects for the scale enthusiast at relatively low cost.

Model builders who are dyed-in-the-wool scale fanatics will not be satisfied with a single source, but a single three-view should be enough documentation for all but national or international contests.

This is especially true in view of the fact that airplanes are seldom if ever built exactly like the first three-view drawn, and three-views are seldom if ever brought up to date by aircraft companies or home builders. This was forcefully brought to my attention by a visit with Bill Hannan recently. He had a new design taking shape on his drawing board, a batch of photos of the airplane, and at least five three-views. All of the three-views had errors, and not a single three-view or photo showed the air inlets at the front of the cowl. Well, c'est la guerre and model building is still fun."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

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