Development of the Salmson 2 occurred in 1916 to which the aircraft was formally readied for its late-1917 introduction. Production eventually steadied to provide healthy, useful wartime numbers and some 3,200 units were completed in all. The Salmson 2 proved critical to French airborne operations in the final year of the war (1918) and its importance was exemplified in the production tally. Additionally, Arriving American forces were given the mount to the tune of 700 examples for their own reconnaissance purposes - further strengthening the type's overall reach and importance to the Allied war effort against the Central Powers. Salmson also provided a slightly modified trainer variant of their Salmson 2 with redundant controls for student and instructor. All told, the aircraft was a serviceable mount with a capable feel and appropriate armament and power. Several limitations in her design were common to other aircraft of the period - limited unobstructed vision from the cockpit, open-air communications between pilot and gunner and canvas-over-wood construction.
After the Armistice of November 1918, stocks of Salmson aircraft existed to the point that they could be sold off to interested allied nations in the post-war rebuilding world. Therefore, global operators emerged in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Peru, Poland, Spain, the Soviet Union and Japan - hundreds were produced locally in Japanese factories. The series was also developed into a handful of forgotten and, ultimately, abandoned wartime variants including the strike-minded Salmson 4, the tactical reconnaissance Salmson 5 and the single-cockpit, twin-seat Salmson 7 reconnaissance platform. Some wartime Salmson 2s were, however, recovered and modified for the civilian passenger role as the "Salmson Limousine" - air travel beginning to take hold as an applicable mode of transportation in the post-war world.
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