MORANE SAULNIER MS.405

The Morane-Saulnier MS.405 was a French low-wing fighter with a landing gear retracted in flight in the classic layout from the interwar period and the initial phase of World War II. The prototype flight took place in 1935 The drive was provided by a single Hispano-Suiza 12Ygrs engine with 860 hp or its modernized version 12Ycrs with 900 hp. The deck armament consisted of a single 20mm HS.404 cannon and two 7.5mm MAC 1934 machine guns. The MS.405 aircraft was developed at the aviation plant Airplanes Morane-Saulnier for the needs of the French military aviation (French Armee de L'air), which in the first half of the 1930s aimed at acquiring a modern fighter intended for maneuvering. The manufacturer used many modern, for those times, technical solutions in his new aircraft. First of all, the MS.405 had a closed pilot cockpit, a retractable landing gear in flight, it was also constructed in a low wing configuration, and its production was mainly made of metal - largely made of aluminum. What's more, the MS.405 was able to achieve a very good (as for the mid-1930s) speed of 470-485 km / h. The MS.405 aircraft also very quickly evolved into the MS.406 fighter, one of the basic machines of the Armee de L'air of the 1940 campaign. When looking at the undoubted advantages of the MS.405, it should be remembered that despite everything, it was inferior to the performance of the Me-109E or Supermarine Spitfire I.