Morane-Saulnier MS.138

The Morane-Saulnier MS.138 was a French military trainer of the late 1920s and the major production version of a family that also included the MS.137 and MS.139. Its design was derived from the MS.35 of the First World War, modernised with a wing with slight sweepback and a redesigned fuselage of rounder cross-section, while the layout remained a wire-braced parasol-wing monoplane with open tandem cockpits and a fixed tailskid undercarriage. Construction was mostly wood, apart from the metal wing spars, with fabric-covered control surfaces, and the power plant was an 80 horsepower Le Rhone 9C rotary engine. Most of the production run went to the Aeronautique Militaire, with a few built for the Aeronavale and for Greece and Denmark, and thirty-three were bought by civil operators in France. The type remained in French military service until 1935.