The Ongoing Mystery Aircraft Thread Part Deux.

[dan_pub]

Indeed it is Mivtza Shlomo, or op Solomon, the emergency evacuation of the Jewish community of Ethiopia just before it fell to the Muslim extremists of Eritrea and Tigre.
Indeed up to 1,122 people in a plane, even though I don't know if this photo was during the record flight. The low body weight of starving Ethiopians helped.

In all 14,325 Beta Israel people were rescued in 36 hours by 35 aircraft, IDF/AF C-130s and El Al's 747s. The 747s were stripped of their seats to lower weight and allow more people on board. And several babies were born in flight.
Those people are considered to be the descendants of King Solomon and Queen Sheba. As the Jewish Agency Chairman said: "We closed a 3,000-year-old circle."


Anyway enough historanting. A Calvados to you, Appleman!

 

[pomme homme]

Thank you, dan.

This one's a composite challenge. And I know that its grainy nature is bound to appeal to Kevin! I'm happy to accept just an identity. But there are bonus points - or, at least, a barrel of the infamous Claveau cider - to anyone who can tell me where the aeroplane is, why it is there and the story behind that!

 

[lefty]

Much as I would love a cask of that cider shipped over here, I fear you are quite safe,Mike. Obviously, the personages appear Gallic (berets and soignee gear) and the machine is reminiscent of the Morane 341, that's about as far as I can go !

 

[Moses03]

Had a feverish dig through my one-off grainy French archive. Ran across several obscure parasol designs but none seemed to match the photo. I think a clue may be in order!

 

[pomme homme]

I'm sorry, Kevin. That was an unintentional double bluff! It's is a 'one off' but not from an obscure manufactuer. Mike is so close that I'm exercising judicial discretion and awarding it to him as it's the sole MS.341, F-AMOP.

As to the where, why and what, I won't prolong the agony. The answers are:

- Selsey Bill, on the Sussex coast
- it had been flown across the Channel and made a forced landing on the beach when land was sighted
- the pilot was Irene Schmeder, who had from the rear cockpit shot her lover, Pierre Lallemant, and then landed in France, allowing him to escape, before taking off, allegedly with the intention of suicidally crashing the Morane, before drifting across the Channel and putting down on the beach in Sussex. She was extradited, stood trial but avoided the guillotine because an amnesty was declared. This crime passionnelle was a cause célèbre in France in 1936 and probably the first attempted murder in a civil light aircraft in flight!

Both the Morane and Mme Schmeder survived the war but not the fifties.

Over to you, Mike

 

[pomme homme]

Sorry, I meant to say MS.340, not MS.341 - but I can't amend my preceding post as the text won't come up and the site seems to be having a hissy fit with me!

 

[lefty]

Thanks Mike. So much for all my fanciful guff about the 'obviously' French people in the photo - taken in Sussex ! What a bizarre tale, though.....but then the French did invent the crime passionelle.....

Something much more mundane - a wee two-seater -

 

[pomme homme]

It's a post-war Mauboussin, I believe. I'd guess at the M.126.

 

[pomme homme]

Can I please change my mind? I think that this is more likely to be the Mauboussin M.123M which Gilbert Pollono re-engined with a 60cv Salmson 9adr in 1954. That's the only post-war model that I can find that is recorded as having a canopy.

 

[lefty]

Pomme Homme generously accepted my near-miss with the Morane, so I am happy to return the compliment - this is actually the one and only Mauboussin M.124 - F-BAOF. It has here the Salmson 5AI engine, although it had several changes of power plant.
Back to France .

PS bearing in mind previous embarrassments with French designations, I had better include a blow-up of the tail of this machine !

 

[lefty]

Well as Mike was generous to me with the Morane, I shall replay the compliment - this is the one and only Mauboussin M.124 - F-BAOF.

Over to France

PS bearing in mind previous embarrassments with French designations, maybe I had better append a photo of the tail unit !

 

[pomme homme]

In an embarassing endeavour to compensate for the low resolution of the image below, here's a triptych of a little parasol wing aeroplane - which is a touch more obscure than the preceding Morane Saulnier and Mauboussin products.

 

[pomme homme]

A little help, gentlemen? French, 1930s and homebuilt.

 

[Moses03]

Hey Mike, I assumed as much but this one must have evaded my frequent trolls though the periodicals of the time.

 

[pomme homme]

Flitting about Guyancourt in 1932 thanks to a 50cv six cylinder Anzani radial.

 

[pomme homme]

Ah well, I don't think that this one is going to go. So it's time to move on. This little aeroplane is the Henri Vacher Monoplan de Tourisme of 1932. Open house, please.

 

[Moses03]

Hmm. I had this in my archives, a 1938 dated Anzani powered Vacher monoplane. Must have been a later design.

 

[pomme homme]

It's the same aeroplane, Kevin. My images came from the 10 November 1932 issue of Les Ailes. The text of the cutting that you've posted says that it is the 1932 aeroplane which M Vacher updated in 1938. He reduced the surface area, added a canopy and made the wings to fold. Unusually for this type of aeroplane at this time in France, this one appears to have been a survivor. I suspect that it didn't survive for many more years after 1938.

 

[lefty]

If I can get this working - not easy today ! - I'll continue the parasol theme with this wee fellow -

 

[DHC2Pilot]

Kevin, I sent you a PM with a dropbox link. Let me know if you don't receive it. I've been getting a lot of "server busy" errors on here and not sure if it went through. Thanks!