Morane-Saulnier

On September 9, 1910, at Issy-les-Moulineaux, the Morane brothers (Léon and Robert) became the first pilots in the world to exceed 100 km/h, peaking at 106.508 km/h.
The company was founded as “Société Anonyme des Aéroplanes Morane-Saulnier” on October 10, 1911 at No. 3 rue Volta in Puteaux by aviation pioneers Léon Morane, Robert Morane and their childhood friend Raymond Saulnier (a former colleague of Louis Blériot).
In September 1912, Georges Legagneux with a Morane-Saulnier Type H snatched the altitude record from Roland Garros, who had just achieved it at Houlgate with a Blériot XI. Approached by Morane and Saulnier, Garros decided to join the young firm based on boulevard Péreire: he bought Legagneux's aircraft out of his own pocket and flew to Tunis to regain his record (5,610 m certified by the Aéro-Club de France in December), before completing a Tunis-Rome raid in December 1912, making him the first aviator to link two continents (Africa and Europe) in a single flight.
In 1913, Marcel Brindejonc des Moulinais circumnavigated Europe in a Morane of the same type. This feat was followed a few months later by Roland Garros's crossing of the Mediterranean on the same aircraft powered by a 60 hp engine in 7 h 53 min.
In April 1914, Raymond Saulnier patented a device for synchronizing firing through the propeller field. But it wasn't this patent that was used on the Morane; it was Saulnier's idea to armor the propeller with steel “deflectors” designed to deflect any bullets that hit the wooden propeller. Roland Garros developed this system before adapting it to a Morane “Parasol” type L, with which he scored three victories in two weeks in April 1915 (the 4th, 5th and 6th victories of all the Allied armies). Curiously, a system that had given such convincing results failed to win over the French military authorities. It was only adapted to a few Morane N-type aircraft, mainly used by the British (who christened the aircraft the “Bullet” because of the shape of its propeller spinner) and the Russians, who were very satisfied with it. In France, the Morane N was used in particular by Eugène Gilbert (who had christened his Morane “Le Vengeur”) and by Commandant Brocard. The Morane L with which Georges Guynemer achieved his first victory was not equipped with this system, but was a two-seater in which the observer acted as rifle marksman.
During the Second World War, the company had to work for the German occupiers, producing aircraft including the Fieseler Fi 156 storch. After the Liberation, production of these highly agile aircraft continued, this time for the French army, under the name Morane-Saulnier MS.500 “Criquet”, with a different engine (Samlson star engine instead of Argus in-line engine). These aircraft, with their excellent performance (short take-off, maneuverability, good field of vision), proved extremely useful during the Indochina War and later the Algerian War.
The company develops the MS.880 Rallye, the original prototype of which makes its maiden flight on June 10, 1959.
In the 1950s, it developed the four-seat twin-engine MS.760 Paris, under the direction of engineer Paul-René Gauthier, who also designed the MS.406 fighter.
After filing for bankruptcy in November 1962, the company was taken over by Henry Potez under the name Société d'exploitation des établissements Morane-Saulnier (SEEMS), before being sold in 1965 to Sud-Aviation under the name Socata, Société de construction d'avions de tourisme et d'affaires.