Page 7 - Volume 16 Number 3

0maximum range and useful load, which are enhanced on the current version, and its ability to land at small airports, are some of its customers’ favorite features.Building On 100 Years Of ExperienceThe heritage of the TMB 850 goes back to 1911, when Raymond Saulnier and the brothers Leonand Robert Morane joined forces to create the Morane-Saulnier aircraft company in France. Saulnier was an experienced designer who had worked for Louis Bleriot, while the Morane brothers had enjoyed previous success with flights in Bleriot-type aircraft at the 1910 Reims airshow. The Aeroplanes Morane-Saulnier firm was foundedin Paris on October 10, 1911 with a capital of one million francs. During World War I, the LaFayette Escadrile trained American volunteers in Morane Saulnier and Nieuport airplanes. Through the 1920s, Morane-Saulnier’s open-cockpit parasol-wing monoplane designs predominated, transitioning to the low-wing enclosed-cockpit,MARCH 2012TWIN & TURBINE • 55