The fast and rugged Spad XIII was among the most successful fighters of the First World War, in a class with the legendary Fokker D.VII and the Sopwith Camel. It was flown by some of the most famous air heroes of the war, such as Guynemer, Fonck, Nungesser, Lufbery, Luke and Rickenbacker.
The original Spad aircraft manufacturing company was formed by Armand Deperdussin in 1910. The acronym Spad was derived from the company's formal name, Societe pour les Appareils Deperdussin.
Spad was taken over in 1914 by the famous aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot, when the firm was experiencing serious finantial difficulties. Bleriot renamed the company Societe pour I'Aviation et ses Derives, thus retaining the same acronym.
Louis Bechereau, a talented designer who stayed with Spad after the reorganization of the company was responsible for the successful series of Spad fighters in World War I. In 1915 he recognized the design limits of the air-cooled rotsrt engines that powered most French aircraft.
A fixed water-cooled engine capable of generating at least 150 horsepower, was in his view the power plant of the future. At this time just such an engine was undergoing trials. It was a new Hispano-Suiza V-8 designed by that companys founder and chief designer, a Swiss born engineer named Marc Birkigt.
The engine was a great step forward in that it had a much better power to weight ratio than previous water cooled designs, as well as many other modern features.
The new Hispano-Suiza engine was just what Bechereau was calling for. He designed his next airframe around the advanced Hispano-Suiza motor, the result was the famous Spad VII.
By the fall of 1916, Spad VIIs were entering French Squadrons and were well received. More than five and a half thousand Spad VIIs were built.
The Spad XIII was a larger improved version of the earlier Spad VII with among other improvements two fixed forward firing Vickers machine guns and a more powerful 200 horsepower Hispano-Suiza 8Ba engine. (Later Spad XIIIs had 220 and 235 horsepower engines.)
The prototype Spad XIII made it's first flight on April 4th 1917 and bt the end of the following month production aircraft were arriving at the front.
The aircraft was particularly noted for it's robust construction and it's ability to dive at high speed, features that made it one of the best dog-fighting airplanes of the war.
The Spad XIII was produced and deployed in great numbers, by the end of 1918 the parent company and eight other French manufactures had built 8,472 of the sturdy fighters.
Almost every French fighter squadron was equipped with them by the end of the war, as well as the American units that were part of the American Expeditionary Force. Spads were also used by the British, Italians, Belgians and the Russians.
Technical Data
Crew 1
Length 6.25m (20ft 6ins)
Height 2.60m (8tf 6ins)
Wingspan 8.08m (26ft 6ins)
Engine V-8 inline Hispano-Suiza-8Be
Cubic capacity 11.8L
Power rating 162kw (220bhp) at 2.300rpm
Propeller 2-blade wooden propeller
Maximum speed 218km/h (135mph) at 2ooom (6000ft) altitude
Empty weight 601kg (1325lbs
Maximum take-off weight 865kg (1907lbs)
Endurance 2hrs
Maximum range 500km (310 miles)
Rate of climb 6m/s (1180 ft/min
Service ceiling 6.650m (13000 ft)
Armament 2 Vickers MG (calibre 7.65mm .303 inch)
The one i am going to depict is the S 7714 as flown by Capt Robert Soubiran Commander of the US 103rd Aero Squadron 3rd pursuit Group pictured below
Sprue shots well looks like a bag of bits
Some nice bits of detail but looks like theres quite a bit of clean up needed
I did find a date on the wing 1982 so with the bag of bits i'm guessing it's been reboxed imo more than once.
A lot of cotton well it is rather a large button
Nice big decals the date on these is 2013 so if nothing else they should stick ok
Instructions
Paint call outs for Revell
Sprue map wish my sprues looked like that
and there we are my entry.
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