French industrialist Emile Salmson had been building radial engines designed by Georges Canton and Georges Unne since 1910 and had begun designing aircraft by 1914. The Societe de Motors Salmson’s first aircraft design to be put into production was the remarkably ungainly twin propeller, single engine SM.1 in November 1916. At the same time that Salmson were manufacturing their SM.1 they were also building Sopwith 1 & 1/2 Strutters (Sopwith 1-A2 in French nomenclature) under license and had begun designing a larger version of this successful, but fragile, British two-seat reconnaissance machine during 1916.

This prototype Salmson A made its maiden flight in January 1917 but did not impress the authorities so it was developed further to be powered by Salmson’s new 260hp 9z water cooled radial engine. This rugged new aircraft became the Salmson 2-A2 prototype which was test flown in April 1917 and put into production with 2200 ordered from Salmson with another 1000 to be built by Campagnie General Omnibus (CGO), Hanriot and Latecoere. Additionally the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal Factory and Kawasaki Shipworks built around 600 licensed (and unlicensed) examples from 1920 to 1927 which were known as the Type Otsu 1 Reconnaissance Aircraft.

• 36cm x 26cm.
• 163 high quality injection moulded plastic parts.
• 17 part highly detailed 260hp Salmson 9z water cooled radial engine.
• Optional Vickers or Marlin machine gun armament, open or closed radiator shutters.
• 13 photo-etched metal detail parts.
• 28 page fully illustrated instruction manual.
• High quality Cartograf decals with markings for 5 colourful USAS aircraft.
• Fine in scale rib tape details.
• Full rigging diagrams.