The Morane-Saulnier MS.140 was designed in
France as an
ambulance aircraft with the ability to operate from small fields and which could double as a
trainer. Only one of these single engine, wooden
biplanes
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...
was built, first flying about 1927.
Design and development
The MS.140 was designed as an ambulance aircraft, with a hatch behind the pilot into which a stretcher could be slid. For maximum utility a second seat with dual control could be fitted instead, the aircraft then able to perform as a trainer.
[
For a 1927 design it was backward looking, particularly in it use of a rotary engine, an 80 hp (60 kW) Le Rhône 9C. It had an all wood structure with fabric covering. The MS.140 was a single bay biplane with wings of equal span but ]sweepback
A swept wing is a wing that angles either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction.
Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigate ...
on the upper wing only. The bays were defined by pairs of parallel interplane struts. On each side a shorter pair of struts ran from the upper fuselage to the upper wing and another pair from the upper fuselage to the lower wing immediately above the attachment point of the main landing leg. The conventional undercarriage
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...
had a wide track, with single wheels on a split axle formed from V-shaped struts hinged at the fuselage lower centreline. The fuselage was square sided with a rounded decking, the pilot sitting below a cut-out in the upper wing for upward visibility. The engine was cowled.[
The MS.140 had a generous wing area, giving it a low wing loading of about 25 kg/m3 (5 lb/ft2). Combined with a high lift ]airfoil
An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine.
...
section, this gave it the ability to operate from very small fields.[
]
Operational history
Only one MS.140 was built and there are few reports of its history. It was noted in the Villacoublay aircraft "graveyard" in 1937 and may have been sold to the Republicans
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
at the start of the Spanish Civil War with others from that store.[
]
Specifications
References
Further reading
*
{{Morane-Saulnier aircraft
MS.140
1920s French military utility aircraft
1920s French military trainer aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1927
Rotary-engined aircraft