Morane-Saulnier M.S.406
| M.S.406 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Morane-Saulnier D-3801 (GC LaFayette) | |
| Role | Fighter |
| Manufacturer | Morane-Saulnier |
| First flight | 8 August 1935 (M.S.405) |
| Introduction | 1938 |
| Primary users |
French Air Force Finnish Air Force Swiss Air Force Turkish Air Force |
| Number built | 1,176 |
The Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 was a French fighter aircraft built by Morane-Saulnier starting in 1938. Numerically, it was France's most important fighter during the opening stages of World War II.
Although sturdy and highly maneuverable, it was underpowered and weakly armed when compared to its contemporaries. Most critically, it was outperformed by the Messerschmitt Bf 109E during the Battle of France. The M.S.406 held its own in the early stages of the war (the so-called Phoney War), but when the war restarted in earnest in 1940, losses to all causes amounted to approximately 400 aircraft. Out of this total some 150 were lost to enemy fighters and ground fire, another 100 were destroyed on the ground in enemy air raids and the remainder was deliberately destroyed by French military personnel to prevent the fighters from falling into enemy hands intact. In return M.S.406 squadrons achieved 191 confirmed victories and another 83 probable victories. The type was more successful in the hands of Finnish and Swiss air forces who developed indigenous models.
In 1934, the Service Technique Aéronautique (Aeronautical Technical Service) of the French Air Force issued the "C1 design" requirement for a new and completely modern single-seat fighter with a monoplane layout and retracting landing gear.
Morane-Saulnier's response was the M.S.405 developed by Engineer in Chief Paul-René Gauthier. The MS.405 was a low-wing monoplane of mixed construction, with fabric-covered wooden tail, but a bonded metal/wood material (Plymax) skin fixed to duralumin tubing. Plymax consisted of a thin sheet of duralumin bonded to a thicker sheet of plywood. Morane-Saulnier had a long history of producing warplanes dating back to pre-World War I years, but in the inter-war period, they had concentrated on civil designs. The aircraft was a departure for them, being their first low-wing monoplane, first with an enclosed cockpit, and first design with retracting landing gear. Prior to this, their most modern designs were fixed-gear parasol monoplanes.
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