Friday, April 22, 2011

France 1915-1918 SPAD Two Seaters

The Other SPAD Aircraft

When people think of the SPAD most think about the two most well known designs, the single seat S.VII and S. XIII fighters. THe SPAD (Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés ) built several less known biplanes. Today I am concentrating on their two seat aircraft. Most of the designs were not particularly successful, and some were extremely poor performers. Even though they were not the greatest aircraft they are fun to draw.

SPAD Two Seat Aircraft - 1915

SPAD A-II 1915
SPAD A-II 1915

One of the more outlandish attempts to design an aircraft with forward firing capabilities. The gunner/observer sat in a small cabin that was attached in front of the prop of the engine. There were many problems with this design, ranging from lack of communication between crew members, to a safety issue for the observer. Many of these planes were exported to Russia where they received no praise from the Russian aviators. Some one once said that flying the A-II was a waste of ammunition for both sides of the conflict.

SPAD Two Seat Aircraft - 1917

SPAD S.XI - 1917
SPAD S.XI - 1917

The SPAD S.XI or SPAD 11 was a French two-seat biplane reconnaissance aircraft of the First World War. The SPAD 11 was the work of Louis Béchereau, chief designer of the Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD), who also designed the highly successful SPAD 7 and SPAD 13 single-seat fighter aircraft. It was developed under military specification C2, which called for a two-seat fighter aircraft. As a result of its failure to meet the levels of performance and agility demanded by the C2 specification, the SPAD 11 was used, along with the more successful Salmson 2 and Breguet 14, to replace aging Sopwith 1½ Strutter and Dorand AR reconnaissance aircraft. Persistent problems with the SPAD 11 led to its early replacement by the SPAD S.XVI or SPAD 16 variant.

SPAD Two Seat Aircraft - 1918

SPAD S-XVI 1918
SPAD S-XVI 1918

The Spad XVI was a two-seat version of the very successful single-seat Spad fighters of World War I, the Spad VII and the Spad XIII. The first Spad two-seat design to see front-line service was the Spad XI. The Spad XVI was an attempt to improve upon it by replacing the Spad XI's 220-horsepower Hispano-Suiza engine with a 240-horsepower Lorraine-Dietrich 8Bb. The Spad XVI appeared in January 1918. It was slightly faster than the Spad XI, but had a lower ceiling and the same poor handling qualities. It offered no overall improvement. Nevertheless, approximately 1,000 Spad XVIs were built, ultimately equipping 32 French escadrilles.

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