Morane-Saulnier MS.230

The Morane-Saulnier MS.230 was the main elementary trainer of the French Armee de l'Air throughout the 1930s, and almost all French pilots flying at the outbreak of the Second World War had made their first training flights in it. It was designed to meet a French Air Ministry requirement as a parasol-wing monoplane with a fabric-covered metal structure and tandem cockpits for instructor and pupil, and its wide-track fixed undercarriage made it very stable on take-off and landing. It first flew in February 1929 and proved easy to fly. More than 1,100 were built and exported to many other air forces, and many survived the war as civilian trainers and flying-club aircraft. One served as a camera ship for the 1967 film Darling Lili, and examples are preserved in museums in several countries.