Morane-Saulnier Alcyon

The Morane-Saulnier Alcyon, meaning kingfisher, is a two or three-seat basic training monoplane designed and built in France by Morane-Saulnier. The MS.730 prototype first flew on 11 August 1949 as a low-wing cantilever monoplane with fixed tailwheel landing gear and a Mathis inverted V8 engine, and later prototypes gained retractable main wheels. The production MS.733 followed, with five pre-production and 200 production aircraft delivered to the French Navy, the French Air Force and the Cambodian Air Force. Seventy French Air Force aircraft were fitted with machine guns for gunnery training, and some became MS.733A counter-insurgency aircraft used in Algeria. A capable trainer for basic aerobatics and instrument navigation, it was also used by civilian flying schools including Air France.