The Morane-Saulnier MS-700 Pétrel ( en,

Petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. Description The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (all except the albatross f ...

) was a French four-seat cabin-monoplane designed and built by

Morane-Saulnier Aéroplanes Morane-Saulnier was a French aircraft manufacturing company formed in October 1911 by Raymond Saulnier (1881–1964) and the Morane brothers, Léon (1885–1918) and Robert (1886–1968). The company was taken over and diversified ...

, only three prototypes were built.

Design and development

The MS-700 was a twin-engined, low-wing, cabin-

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with a retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

and powered by two Potez 4D-33 four-cylinder, inverted inline piston engines. The prototype, with French test registration ''F-WFDC'', first flew on 8 January 1949. The aircraft was intended as a light liaison aircraft and the second prototype made a demonstration tour of Africa at the end of 1950. The second prototype was re-engined with two Mathis G8-20 engines and re-designated ''MS-701''. On 3 January 1951 a third prototype first flew, it was a MS-703 with a longer fuselage for six-seats and two Salmson 8.AS.OO engines. After being used by the company for a number of years the first prototype was due to be modified in the late 1950s to the same standards as the MS-703 but with Potez engines but it was not converted and instead was withdrawn from use. Only the three prototypes were built and the type did not enter production.

Variants

;MS-700-01 :First prototype of the Four-seat MS-700 variant, powered by two Potez 4D-33 engines. First flown on 8 January 1949 the MS-700-01 (regn. F-WFDC) was withdrawn from use in June 1959. ;MS-700-02 :Second prototype of the MS-700 series, powered by two Potez 4D-31 engines, converted to MS-701 standard (regn. F-BFDE). ;MS-701 :Second prototype, MS-700-02, re-engined with two Mathis G8-20 engines. ;MS-702 :No details. ;MS-703-01 :Six-seat variant powered by two Salmson 8.AS.00 /

Argus As 10 The Argus As 10 was a German-designed and built, air-cooled 90° cylinder bank-angle inverted V8 "low power" aircraft engine, used mainly in training aircraft such as the Arado Ar 66 and Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stösser and other small short-range r ...

engines, one built. The MS-703-01 was first flown on 3 January 1951. ;MS-704 :Proposed modification of the first prototype to MS-703 standard with two Potez engines, not converted.

Design and development

Variants

Specification (MS-700-01)

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading