The Salmson company originally produced a scries of reliable, water-cooled radial airplane engines. Salmson then expanded into aircraft design and manufacture, and naturally all their designs used Salmson engines. The first Salmson aircraft to enter production was the unconventional S.M.I, designed to fulfill a requirement fora long-range, three-seat reconnaissance airplane. The S.M.I served in small numbers due to its limited utility. Only a single prototype of the S.M.2 ground attack airplane, derived from the S.M.I, was built. The next Salmson design, the Salmson 2, was a very successful type that was built in great quantity. The Salmson 2 served extensively on the Western Front with the Aviation Militaire and the United States Air Service. It was a robust aircraft with good performance and handling characteristics that was well-liked by its crews. Its appearance in late 1917 finally gave the Aviation Militaire an up-to-date two-seat observation and reconnaissance aircraft comparable in performance and combat capability to the better German types that had long been in service. The Salmson 2 was a tough opponent for the German fighters it faced; its only serious design flaw was the distance between pilot and observer which made communication between them difficult during combat.
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