Morane Saulnier AI MS.29c.1 (oz5344)

About this Plan

Morane Saulnier Parasol. Radio control scale French WWI fighter model. Merco 49 shown. March 70 FM, traced by Al Novotnik. Scale is 1/6.

Quote: "World War I aircraft are usually considered to be synonymous with biplanes. True, most of the more popular and successful planes of the period were biplanes. The most noteworthy exceptions were the Fokker and Sopwith triplanes. As far as monoplanes go, most people would be hard pressed to name more than a couple, probably the Fokker E-111 Eindecker or D-V111 'Flying Razor'. The latter was developed late in 1918 and saw little active service.

It seems strange that in the early days of the war there were quite a few monoplanes in use. Some had very good performance for their day. Among them were Nieuports, Bristols, Bleriots, Fokkers, Taubes and Morane Saulniers. Our subject here is one of the Morane Saulniers developed in 1917.

Morane Saulnier built their first parasol in 1913. This was the type L or MS.3. Roland Garros made the type L famous by firing an unsyncronized machine gun through the propeller. He fitted the blades with steel plates to deflect the bullets that would have hit them. He scored five victories in a short time with his new secret weapon. On his sixth attempt the propeller was damaged forcing him to land in German territory. The Germans were quick to order a duplicate of Garros's deflector. Instead Fokker went one better and developed a synchronizing device that allowed the gun to fire only when the propeller blades were clear.

Another first for the type L was the air to air downing of a Zeppelin.

Morane Saulnier produced many types of monoplanes, among them, the L, LA, P, N, AC and shown here the AI.

The AI, like the Fokker D-VIII went into service late in the war and saw only two months combat duty. After that it served as a training plane. For the small combat role the AI played, quite a number were made - 1,210 in all.

Our model is built to a scale of 2 in = 1 ft. It has a 57 in wingspan and approximately 540 square inches of wing area. The stabilizer area is rather small, about 15%. However with proportional control and a properly located center of gravity, it poses no flight problems. In fact control is very smooth. Those that saw it fly at Rheinbeck '69 can attest to it.

We used a Merco .49 for power. The plane weighed 6-1/4 pounds ready to go less fuel. With this power and weight all the required scale maneuvers could be performed. A .45 should be used only if you build a very light model, less than 6 pounds. A .60 would not be too much. Too much power is far better than too little in a model of this type.

Radio equipment used was a Micro Avionics XLIC. This is one of the nicest looking rigs around. The servos are the smallest available at this time. They appear to have ample power to handle the largest multi..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 18/10/2017: added article, thanks to RFJ.

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