Morane-Saulnier Type N

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 MS.5 C.1. 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 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.

49 aircraft were built but it was quickly rendered obsolete by the pace of aircraft development.

Data from War Planes of the First World War, Volume Five.

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