Morane-Saulnier Type L: "First Fighter"

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Various aircraft have been described as the “first fighter”. Like a lot of discussions around technological firsts, it’s a somewhat pointless debate since the answer depends on what you consider important. The first purpose-built fighter was the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus, though the slow, awkward two-seat pusher couldn’t keep up with its prey. The first effective fighter was the Fokker Eindecker, though its success had less to do with the airframe than with the German development of a reliable synchronization system that allowed its machine gun to fire through the propeller arc without hitting the blades You could make a case that the Morane-Saulnier Type L was the first fighter-like fighter, at least in the configuration developed for the French tennis star and pilot Roland Garros in 1915. This was the first high performance, single-seat aircraft with a fixed forward-firing machine gun that the pilot aimed by maneuvering the aircraft. Like the Gunbus and the Eindeckler, the Type L airframe predated the war. It was developed from the parasol-winged G-19 that first flew in 1913. This was part of a line of successful designs from the French firm Morane-Saulnier. The parasol arrangement refers to a single wing suspended by struts above the fuselage, a form well suited to observing the ground. The parasol configuration was common for monoplane fighters during the First World War and much of the Interwar Period. The Type-L was designed as a two-seat aircraft, with pilot and observer seated back-to-back. The observer's relatively forward position made for a compact airframe. With the wing overhead, the observer's downward view was unimpeded by a lower wing as it would have been in a mid or low-wing tractor (front-engine) monoplane or biplane aircraft. The Type-L used wing warping rather than ailerons for roll. Control cables attached to the trailing edge of a relatively thin and flexible wing were used to deform its surface. This form of wing warping, common on very early aircraft, had several disadvantages. The additional exposed cables added parasitic drag. Pressure from high speeds and/ or heavy control inputs could deform the thin wing in unexpected ways making it difficult to control the aircraft. The Type L’s direct successors, the Type LA and P, used ailerons as did most aircraft after this early period of the war. The Type-L wasn’t an outstanding aircraft. It was notoriously difficult and dangerous to fly. It nevertheless saw service in over fifteen countries on both sides of the War. Licensed models were manufactured in Germany, Sweden and Russia <b>First Fighter</b> The Type L is famous for being used by Roland Garros to shoot down three German aircraft in April of 1915. This was a special single-seat arrangement made for the tennis star that used a forward-firing Hotchkiss M1909 light machinegun, as well as an armoured propeller to deflect bullets. The French, like the Germans, had been developing a synchronization mechanism to permit a machine gun to fire between the spinning blades. However, it took the Entente powers substantially longer than the Germans to develop an arrangement that worked reliably. The armoured propeller was a compromise that subsequently also saw service on the purpose-built Type-N fighter. Garros’ April spree was cut short when his aircraft was hit by ground fire and forced to land in German-held territory. He survived uninjured and was taken prisoner, but the aircraft was captured and studied by the Germans. The discovery prompted them to quickly put an interrupter gear-equipped aircraft into service. The Fokker Eindecker took a very heavy toll on Entente aircraft until an effective generation of Entente fighters, notably the French Nieuport 11 and the British Airco DH2, could be brought into service in 1916. Ultimately, the Type L can be considered the starting gun in a race to develop aircraft for destroying opposing aircraft and defending one’s own. It introduced (or, perhaps, hastened) a new dimension of violence to the battlefields of the First World War.