Shortly after the end of World War I, Farman introduced a low powered single seat monoplane for sport and tourism.
The design was revived, over 17 years after its first appearance, as the F 450 Moustique and was one of the aircraft purchased by the French government as part of l'Aviation Populaire programme.
The undercarriage consisted of two parallel spruce panels mounted on the fuselage, bearing two mainwheels on a single axle.
It was the only Moustique type glider, but the fuselage, wing bracing and rudder modifications were carried forward into all later variants.
In response, Farman relaunched the Moustique with a slightly shorter span of 8.07 m (26 ft 6 in) and a longer fuselage.
Only one was built; its performance in the climb was poor, but in any case the light aircraft section of the Farman works was shut down when the company was nationalised in March 1937.
The Aviette, piloted by Lois Bossoutrot, won several prizes in the competition between catapult-launched gliders, achieving the lowest sinking speed, the greatest altitude (80 m or 262 ft) and longest over-launch site duration of 3 min 30 s. The Aviette was placed second in the distance-covered contest, flying 5.28 km (3.28 mi).
The winner was Lucien Coupet in the Salmson-powered Aviette, covering 310 kilometers (192.5 miles) in 4 hours 37 minutes 19 seconds.
[1] A year later, Farman entered two MF 21 Moustique IIs into the Tour de France, an eight-stage contest organised by the AFF.
Initial elimination trials in bad weather reduced the 15 entrants to a starting group of three for the Tour proper.
The MF 21 flown by Maurice Drouhin was the only survivor by the end of the second stage, and he was declared the winner, having covered 1,807 km (1,123 mi) in 20 hr 40 min 27 s. Drouhin also won the Prix Solex, worth 50,000 FF in April 1925, flying the Salmson-powered Aviette.
To make the Moustique attractive to the hunting fraternity, Farman advertised an optional rear locker "for the transport of a dog.