Salmson Model 2
Model Airplane News Cover Art for December, 1964
by Jo Kotula
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The Salmson 2 was a French biplane reconnaissance aircraft. At the end of the First World War, one-third of French reconnaissance aircraft were Salmson 2s and two thirds were the Breguet 14s.

     

Photos of the Salmson Model 2
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During the First World War, the Salmson factory built aircraft engines, generally 9- and later 18-cylinder water-cooled radial engines. The company's first entry into aircraft design came with the Salmson-Moineau S.M. 1, an unusual three-seat reconnaissance biplane with two propellors gear-driven from a single Salmson engine in the nose of the fuselage. Although 155 of these were built, they were not especially successful.

The Salmson 2 developed from a requirement to replace the Sopwith 1½ Strutter as a tactical reconnaissance aircraft. Salmson had built the 1½ Strutter under license, and the Salmson 2, while an original design, owed more to the Sopwith than to the earlier Salmson-Moineau. The aircraft was of conventional construction, powered by the company's own radial engine of 230 bhp. Production was ordered after trials in April 1917, and deliveries were underway by October of that year. Around 3,200 Salmson 2s were built in France.

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