Morane-Saulnier M.S.733 Alcyon

Development of the Morane-Saulnier M.S.733 Alcyon (kingfisher) basic trainer began with the M.S.730.01 prototype, which flew for the first time on 11 August 1949. With the original 134kW Mathis 8G.20 inverted V-8 engine replaced by a 179kW Argus As 10, the prototype flew again in November that year as the M.S.731. Two M.S.732 prototypes were flight tested in early 1951, each of them powered by a Potez 6D.30 engine and having the previous cantilever fixed landing gear replaced by a new design in which the main units retracted. The first example of the definitive version flew on 16 April 1951 as the M.S.733.01; five pre-production aircraft followed and series aircraft totalled 200; 40 for the French navy, 15 for Cambodia, and the balance for service with the Armee de I'Air as the Alcyon, 70 of them being fitted with machine-gun armament for use as gunnery trainers. In 1956 some of the gunnery trainers were converted for counter-insurgency duties, with machine-gun and anti-personnel bomb armament, for use against the nationalist rebels in Algeria. These aircraft were redesignated M.S.733A, of which a number were sold later to Morocco.