Country of origin:

France

Description:

Single-seat fighting scout

Power Plant:

[Spad VII]

One 112 kw (150 hp) Hispano Suiza 8Aa eight-cylinder single overhead camshaft V-8 liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

The Spad series of fighting scouts was produced by the Societe Pour Aviation et ses Derives (SPAD), the chief designer being Louis Bechereau.  Several thousand examples of a variety of models were constructed and saw extensive service during World War I.  The Spad S.V fighting scout appeared in April 1916, being a compact single-seater of conventional appearance incorporating unusual interplane bracing.  It was designed around the new 104 kw (140 hp) Hispano-Suiza A engine designed by Marc Birkigt, and had a gun-synchronising mechanism. The prototype was said to have attained a speed of 215 km/h (134 mph).

Production of the Spad S.VII commenced in mid-1916, this model having the 131 kw (175 hp) Hispano Suiza engine as more power was required, and armament was a 7.65 mm (0.301 in) Vickers machine gun.  By August 1917 over 50 French escadrilles de chasse were equipped with the type.  When production was discontinued in 1919 some 8,472 had been completed.  In 1918 the XIII appeared, this being a two-machine gun fighter.

The Spad was a popular fighter with Allied fighter pilots during the Great War and, despite having poor forward and downward visibility, it gained a reputation as fast, reliable, and able to sustain considerable damage and survive.  Irish ace William Cochrane-Patrick gained 18 victories in the Spad, and French pilot Georges Guynemer scored 39 of his 53 victories in the type.  It is known Charles Kingsford Smith, whilst flying with No 23 Squadron RFC on the Western Front, was shot down in a Spad VII on 14 August 1917, being injured and taking some considerable time to convalesce. He did not fly in combat again, being posted to No 204 TDS at Eastchurch in Kent as a flying instructor.  It is believed he gained all of his five victories in a Spad VII.  Captain A A Pentland MC, DFC, an Australian from Maitland, NSW, flew the Spad VII and XIII and gained 20.5 victories in Europe.

Examples of the Spad VII were supplied to Brazil, Greece, Romania, Siam, Peru, Portugal, Yugoslavia and Russia.  In the United Kingdom 200 were built under licence and these served with both the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.  In the event, the RNAS decided it would rather have Sopwith Triplanes and 100 were exchanged for Spads with the RFC.  Australian units which used the Spad VII with the RFC included Nos 30, 63 and 72 Squadrons.

In July 1977 reports appeared of a Spad in the Hunter Valley in NSW.  A travel magazine referred to a local farmer, an ex-World War I fighter pilot, who had imported a Spad from Europe after returning from the Great War and flew it occasionally from a paddock on his farm, storing it in a shed / barn.  After he died it gathered dust in the shed but its fate is unknown.  It is believed at one stage the RAAF Museum was seeking to locate the aircraft for restoration.

A number of replicas have been constructed around the world.  A Spad XIII was built in Italy to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the death of Italy’s highest scoring World War I ace, Francesco Baracca.  This machine was powered by a Lycoming O-360 four-cylinder engine. A XIII replica was built in the United States and operated at aviation evets at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in the State of New York, this aircraft being built to replace an original Spad which had been used at Old Rhinebeck by Cole Palin and which was retired in 1971.  Another XIII was built by Vintage Aviation Services in Texas in 2008 with a 164 kw (220 hp) geared Hispano Suiza V-8 engine for a Californian collector, this being finished in the colours of the aircraft flown in 1918 by French pilot Sous-L Gaston Bourgeas with Escadrille SPA 153.

A couple of original aircraft survive. A Spad VII (c/n 248) was restored and placed on display at Cambrai i n France, this aircraft being built by Mann Egerton in Norwich in 1917 and serving with the RFC as a trainer before going to the US. It saw service with a Hollywood stunt pilot in 1927, later going to Paul Mantz and becoming part of his museum, the Tallmantz Collection, in 1961.  A XII (c/n S7571) built in 1918 was restored and placed on display in 2007 at the Phoenix Airport terminal in Arizona.  A XIII is held by the RCAF Museum in Ontario.  Others are on display at: the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, a XVI (serial 1959) at the Udvar Hazy Museum in Washington, DC, and a XIII (serial 3398) at the Royal Navy Museum at Yeovilton in Somerset.

Loehle Aircraft has produced kits to build scale replicas of the Spad XIII, Fokker D.VII and RAF SE.5a.