Fieseler Fi 156C Storch (Morane-Saulnier MS.500 Criquet)
As the Luftwaffe rearmed for war, the Reich Air Ministry issued a requirement for a light aircraft capable of acting as a scouting aircraft, artillery spotter, and air ambulance. Fieseler offered its Fi 156 design, which incorporated both slats and flaps. This gave the aircraft superb short-field landing performance, and its robust landing gear allowed operations from any remotely firm surface. The Luftwaffe were impressed, and ordered it into production in 1936. It quickly gained the nickname "Storch" (Stork) for its long landing gear.
The Storch proved to be everything and more the Luftwaffe wanted. Easy to produce and fly, Storchs were assigned to most Luftwaffe squadrons as hack aircraft, and many in specialized squadrons to assist the German Army. It had superb visibility (including below; the floor was glazed), could land in any condition, and even had a modicum of self-defense with a rear firing MG 42 light machinegun. General Erwin Rommel, a qualified pilot, used his Storch to keep track of his fast-moving Afrika Korps; his British adversary, Bernard Montgomery, would do the same with his 8th Army in a captured Fi 156. It was most famously used in the Gran Sasso raid to free Benito Mussolini, but Storchs could be found anywhere.
During the war, production was shifted from the Fieseler factory, first to Mraz in Czechoslovakia, and then to Morane-Saulnier in France. So capable was the Storch that both nations kept it in production after the war; the French used metal construction and designated it the MS-500 Criquet. 2900 were built and a few dozen survive.
Though painted as an Italian Fi 156C serving in North Africa, this is actually a postwar MS.500 Criquet, built for the French Armee de l'Air in 1947. It is a war veteran, however: it served in the Indochina War as an artillery spotter and liaision aircraft. After the war, it was sold off as surplus and bought by a civilian operator. In 1974, an American warbird collector bought a batch of Criquets and sold them to other collectors; this aircraft went to the Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation at Chino, California. It was displayed at the Air Heritage Museum in Texas from 1990 to 2004, when it was moved to the Pima Air and Space Museum.
Not many museums have wartime Italian aircraft (even if this wasn't actually Italian); this one is painted in the Regia Aeronautica's standard desert "sand and spinach" scheme used in North Africa. The white wingtips were used as recognition features for Axis aircraft in North Africa, while the Italian wartime markings reflect the divided government of Fascist Italy: the underwing markings show the fascistii of Mussolini's government, while the white tail cross is the emblem of Italy's royal House of Savoy.
Fieseler Fi 156C Storch (Morane-Saulnier MS.500 Criquet)
As the Luftwaffe rearmed for war, the Reich Air Ministry issued a requirement for a light aircraft capable of acting as a scouting aircraft, artillery spotter, and air ambulance. Fieseler offered its Fi 156 design, which incorporated both slats and flaps. This gave the aircraft superb short-field landing performance, and its robust landing gear allowed operations from any remotely firm surface. The Luftwaffe were impressed, and ordered it into production in 1936. It quickly gained the nickname "Storch" (Stork) for its long landing gear.
The Storch proved to be everything and more the Luftwaffe wanted. Easy to produce and fly, Storchs were assigned to most Luftwaffe squadrons as hack aircraft, and many in specialized squadrons to assist the German Army. It had superb visibility (including below; the floor was glazed), could land in any condition, and even had a modicum of self-defense with a rear firing MG 42 light machinegun. General Erwin Rommel, a qualified pilot, used his Storch to keep track of his fast-moving Afrika Korps; his British adversary, Bernard Montgomery, would do the same with his 8th Army in a captured Fi 156. It was most famously used in the Gran Sasso raid to free Benito Mussolini, but Storchs could be found anywhere.
During the war, production was shifted from the Fieseler factory, first to Mraz in Czechoslovakia, and then to Morane-Saulnier in France. So capable was the Storch that both nations kept it in production after the war; the French used metal construction and designated it the MS-500 Criquet. 2900 were built and a few dozen survive.
Though painted as an Italian Fi 156C serving in North Africa, this is actually a postwar MS.500 Criquet, built for the French Armee de l'Air in 1947. It is a war veteran, however: it served in the Indochina War as an artillery spotter and liaision aircraft. After the war, it was sold off as surplus and bought by a civilian operator. In 1974, an American warbird collector bought a batch of Criquets and sold them to other collectors; this aircraft went to the Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation at Chino, California. It was displayed at the Air Heritage Museum in Texas from 1990 to 2004, when it was moved to the Pima Air and Space Museum.
Not many museums have wartime Italian aircraft (even if this wasn't actually Italian); this one is painted in the Regia Aeronautica's standard desert "sand and spinach" scheme used in North Africa. The white wingtips were used as recognition features for Axis aircraft in North Africa, while the Italian wartime markings reflect the divided government of Fascist Italy: the underwing markings show the fascistii of Mussolini's government, while the white tail cross is the emblem of Italy's royal House of Savoy.