Attributed to "World Aircraft Origins - World War I" by Enzo Angelucci and Paolo Matricardi, 1975
The first fixed forward-firing machine gun to be fired in anger from a plane in flight, early in 1915, was installed on a Morane-Saulnier Type L. The gun, an 8 mmHotchkiss, was installed just behind the engine cowling, and was fired successfully through the propeller disk with the aid of a simple mechanis: two steel plates fastened to the rear of the blades on the line of fire protected the propeller by deflecting the bullets that would have struck its blades. Rudimentary as this deflector may have been, it made the Morane-Saulnier Type L the first real 'fighter' plane in the history of aviation. The user of this deflector, French pilot Roland Garros, shot down five enemy planes in the first three weeks of April 1915.

The Morane-Saulnier L was the first in a long line of monoplane fighters produced by Robert and Leon Morane and their partner Raymond Saulnier. The design was developed in 1913, and when war broke out, many Type ls were ordered for reconassance work. This high-performance plane was a better aircraft than contemporary Aviatik and Albatros two-seaters.The crews carried small arms, such as pistols and carbines, to combat enemy planes and several planes in this primitive system of air combat.  One of many pilots who had their baptism of fire in a Type L monoplane was the then Corporal Guynemerwaho was to become one of the great aces of the war. He shot down a German twoseater on July 19, 1915, with a machine gun. The Morane-Saulnier L, of which about 600 were built, was followed in 1914 by the Types LA and P, Larger, more powerful and better armed.

General characteristics of original aircraft:
Crew: 1-2
Type: Fighter/reconnaissance
Year: 1913   
Length: 6.88 meters (22 ft 6.75 in)       
Wingspan: 11.2 m (36 ft 9 in)
Height: 3.93 m (12 ft 10.5 in)
Weight: 655 kg (1,441 lbs)
Max. Speed: 115 kph (71.5 mph) at 2,000 m (6,560 ft)
Ceiling: 4,000 m (13,123 ft)
Endurance: 2 hrs 30 mins
Powerplant: 1 × Gnome rotary, 80 hp
Armament: 1 Hotchkiss machine gun; few bombs