Whilst re-reading Cecil Lewis's superbly literate and evocative Great War memoir of his time in the RFC, 'Sagittarius rising'I came across this passage where he describes his Morane Parasol aeroplane, and I quote..
....." Moranes were French machines.You could see that as soon as you looked at one. It was something in the design, difficult to put a finger on. Rakish, rather stylish, and yet somehow different - in the way that a Bugatti or a Delage is different ".....
He also goes on to say what an unforgiving horror they were to fly, and how super-sensative the controls were, and how he ended up absolutely loving it.
He wrote this of a 1916 plane in 1936 when the book was first published, so it seems that French engineering has had these traits for a long time before the DS appeared!!!
As an aside, when you read through the book, all the friends he lost, the horrors he saw, it comes as a bit of a shock to see that when the war ended, he was de-mobbed at only 20!!!
Anyone who has read 'First Light' will love it.....
French engineering......
Moderator: RichardW