| MS-733 Alcyon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| A privately owned Alcyon wearing markings of No 51 Escadrilles de Servitude | |
| Role | Basic trainer |
| National origin | France |
| Manufacturer | Morane-Saulnier |
| First flight | 1949 |
| Status | Several flown by private owners |
| Primary user | French Air Force |
| Number built | 208 |
The Morane-Saulnier Alcyon (en: Kingfisher) is a two or three-seat basic training monoplane designed and built in France by Morane-Saulnier.
Designed as a basic trainer for the French military the prototype MS.730 first flew on 11 August 1949. The prototype was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a fixed tailwheel landing gear and powered by a 180 hp (130 kW) Mathis 8G.20 inverted V8 engine. The engine was replaced with a German war-surplus 240 hp (180 kW) Argus As 10 and the prototype flew again in November 1949 as the MS.731. Two further prototypes were built and flown in 1951 designated MS.732, they were each powered by a Potez 6D 02 engine and the original fixed landing gear of the prototype was replaced with retractable main wheels.
The production version that followed was designated the MS.733, with five pre-production aircraft and 200 production aircraft. The aircraft were delivered to the French Navy (40), the French Air Force (145) and the Cambodian Air Force (15). Seventy of the French Air Force aircraft were fitted with machine guns for gunnery training and some of these were later converted for counter-insurgency operations (and re-designated MS.733A) for use in Algeria. After the war, some aircraft were sold to Morocco.
The Alcyon was a successful trainer, capable of basic aerobatic maneuvers. It was often used in replacement of pre-war vintage Stampe SV.4 biplanes. Several civilian flying schools, including Air France, used the Alcyon. For the time, it was well equipped with full IFR equipment: two VOR-ILS sets, one ADF set, two VHF radios, a radar altimeter, an attitude indicator, and a directional gyroscope. For this reason, it was often used for navigation training as it was far cheaper to operate than the twin-engine designs commonly used for that task.
Since retirement by the French military services, several Alcyons have been restored to flying condition in France by private pilot owners and groups.
Cambodia 
France 
Khmer Republic 
Morocco Data from [5]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Related lists
The Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 is a French fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by Morane-Saulnier starting in 1938. It was France's most numerous fighter during the Second World War and one of only two French designs to exceed 1,000 in number. At the beginning of the war, it was one of only two French-built aircraft capable of 400 km/h (250 mph) – the other being the Potez 630.
The Morane-Saulnier Type P was a French parasol wing two-seat reconnaissance aeroplane of the First World War. Morane-Saulnier built 595 for the French air force, and it was also used by the British until 1916-17.
Morane-Saulnier MoS-50 was a French parasol configuration trainer aircraft built in 1924. The twin-seat aircraft was of wooden construction and was one of the last aircraft to have a rotary engine, a 97 kW (130 hp) Clerget 9B.
Between 1920 and 1951 the Société des Moteurs Salmson in France developed and built a series of widely used air-cooled aircraft engines.
The Morane-Saulnier M.S.225 was a French fighter aircraft of the 1930s. It was produced in limited quantities to be used as a transitional aircraft between the last of the biplanes and the first monoplane fighters.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.230 aircraft was the main elementary trainer for the French Armée de l'Air throughout the 1930s. Almost all French pilots flying for the Armée de l'Air at the outbreak of World War II had had their earliest flight training in this machine. It was the equivalent of the Stearman trainer in the United States air services and the de Havilland Tiger Moth in the British Royal Air Force.
The Morane-Saulnier AI was a French parasol-wing fighter aircraft produced by Morane-Saulnier during World War I.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.315 was a primary training monoplane designed and built in France by Morane-Saulnier.
The Morane-Saulnier Vanneau is a two-seat basic trainer built in France by Morane-Saulnier and ordered by the French Air Force.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.43 was a French two-seat training biplane designed and built by Morane-Saulnier for a 1924 French War Ministry requirement for an intermediate training biplane.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.129 and its derivatives in the MS.130 series were a family of military trainer aircraft produced in France in the 1920s. They were conventional, parasol-wing monoplanes with open cockpits in tandem and fixed tailskid undercarriage. The initial version, the MS.129, was produced in small numbers for the Romanian Air Force and civil users, but the major production version was the MS.130, which equipped the French Navy and a number of foreign air arms.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.147 and its derivatives, the MS.148 and MS.149 were a family of trainer aircraft produced in France in the late 1920s for civil and military use. They were derived from other machines in Morane-Saulnier's successful line of monoplane trainers, combining the wire-braced parasol wing of the MS.138 with the fuselage and undercarriage of the MS.130.
The Potez 56 was a 1930s French executive transport monoplane built by Potez and later used as a military crew trainer and liaison aircraft.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.755 Fleuret was a prototype French two-seat jet trainer designed and built by Morane-Saulnier. It failed to gain any orders but was developed into the larger four-seat MS.760 Paris.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.560 was a French civil aerobatic monoplane designed and built by Morane-Saulnier.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.1500 Épervier was a 1950s French two-seat ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft. Designed and built by Morane-Saulnier to meet a French Air Force requirement, it did not enter production.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.180 is a single engine, single parasol wing aerobatic trainer designed in France in 1929. About seventeen were produced and used in French flying clubs, some surviving World War II and one remaining in use at a club until the 1970s. Before World War II, some were used by Spanish Republican forces to train pilots in the Spanish Civil War. Two MS.181s are still flying.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.341 was a single engine parasol wing training and touring aircraft built in France in the mid-1930s. It had two open cockpits in tandem and was sold to private owners, clubs and the Armée de l'Air.
The Morane-Saulnier MS-700 Pétrel was a French four-seat cabin-monoplane designed and built by Morane-Saulnier, only three prototypes were built.
The Morane-Saulnier MS.250 was a crew-trainer aircraft built by Morane-Saulnier in the late 1920s.
