MS760 HISTORY

ADDITIONAL LINKS

IIn the early 1950’s the French Air Force needed an ab-inito  jet trainer (the same aircraft takes a pilot from zero hours up to advanced jet training) and Morane-Saulnier proposed the MS-755 Fleuret but the competition was won by the Fouga Magister. The company then re-designed the MS-755 as a four-seat liaison aircraft which they called the MS760 Paris.

On 29 July 1954 one of the three prototype MS760, registered F-WGVO (later registered F-BGVO), took off on its maiden flight piloted by  test pilot Jean Cliquet.   With its T-shaped vertical stabilizer, low wing, and two Turbomeca Marboré 400 kg turbines internally mounted side-by-side in the aft fuselage, the Paris offered a platform characterized by inherent stability.  The aircraft had four seats, two in the front and two in the back, and a retractable tricycle landing gear.

The French military ordered aircraft for training and liaison duties with both the French Air Force and Navy  and production started with first deliveries in  1958. Some 153 aircraft (Paris I and Paris II) were produced for the French Air Force (36 planes), French Navy (14), Brazil Air Force (30), Argentina Air  Force (48) of which 36 where built in Argentina by Fábrica Militar de Aviones (FMA) in Argentina (formerly Lockheed Argentina). under license and about 25 type II for the civil market. 

Private owners included the Shah of Iran, Harold Quandt (shareholder of Daimler-Benz) and the famous movie star John Travolta.   Also flight training schools like the Dutch Government Flight Training School (7)  for KLM student-pilot training and  French Centre de Ecole St. Yan (5). had this type of aircraft in their fleet.    Interestingly, the fuselages of serial number 109 and 110 were never completed.




Please enjoy the video "Farewell" featuring the Argentine Air Force MS760 and flight crews. Place mouse over the image to use playback controls.

Despite performing about 700 demonstration flights in co-operation with Beech in the USA in 1954-1958,  the Paris was unable to compete with the Learjet  and Jet Commander at the time.   The Paris received its US Certificate of Airworthiness  based on s/n: 006 N84J on  07-07-1958.   

In 1961, production plants started rolling out the MS760B Paris II, fitted with two Marboré IV 480 kg engines, wingtip fuel tanks, air-conditioning, and a bigger luggage compartment. On 24 February 1964, a six-passenger version, designated MS760C Paris III, made its first flight, but it was never ordered.  Production of the Paris II ceased, and production of the Paris III never started.

Some of the Argentine Air Force Paris Jets were equipped with machine guns, 20 mm cannon and other light armaments.

The MS760B Paris II, with various systems improvements and integral fuel tanks in the leading edges of the wing, first flew on 12 December 1960.

The French Navy stopped operating MS760 in 1997 followed by the French Air Force in 2001. Many of the aircraft went to French museum or became instruction airframes and just one (s/n; 32 and previous French Navy) was left as F-AZLT in flying condition for the French air show-display’s.   In 2007, after 48 years of continuous service, the Argentine Air Force retired their last Paris.  Many of the civilian MS760 Jets are still in service, with some of them for sale and competing very favorably with the new generation of very light jets on price.