From the Fieseler Fi 156 to the Morane-Saulnier MS 500. From the Storch to the Criquet

A spotter for our soldiers in 1940, an artillery observation aircraft or casualty evacuation platform in Indochina and North Africa, then a glider tug in the 1960s, the Storch is now a star of air shows.

We will discover together its history, its many adaptations and its exploits. The present work was carried out drawing on a large quantity of both public and private archives. The latter were used while avoiding reliance on unsubstantiated claims. Indeed, a great many assertions — sometimes fanciful — have been made about this aircraft, and an attempt has been made to set the record straight whenever original technical documentation existed. No claim is made to exhaustiveness, but every effort has been made to come as close to it as possible. The reader will certainly understand the complexity of the task and will no doubt forgive any errors or omissions that may have crept in. This is particularly true of the individual history of each French aircraft that concludes this work. The archives from the post-war period are very incomplete, human memory was then more heavily relied upon, and traceability was not yet in fashion…

The author simply hopes that this work will bring back fond memories to the pilots who, like him, had the good fortune to fly it, to the glider pilots who, like him, were towed by the « Storch », and will help all those who restore or maintain this wonderful machine…

Approximately 368 pages, more than 380 photographs, diagrams and plans, as well as around twenty colour profiles.