SPAD VII
| SPAD S.VII | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| British-built SPAD S.VII of the RFC | |
| Role | biplane fighter |
| Manufacturer | SPAD |
| Designer | Louis Béchereau |
| First flight | May 1916 |
| Primary users |
Aéronautique Militaire Royal Flying Corps - Belgium - Italy |
| Number built | ~6000 |
The SPAD S.VII was the first of a series of highly successful biplane fighter aircraft produced by Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) during the First World War. Like its successors, the S.VII was renowned as a sturdy and rugged aircraft with good climbing and diving characteristics. It was also a stable gun platform, although pilots used to the more manoeuvrable Nieuport fighters found it heavy on the controls. It was flown by a number of the famous aces, such as France's Georges Guynemer, Italy's Francesco Baracca and Australia's Alexander Pentland.
Performance in early aircraft designs was largely dependent on engines. In February 1915, Swiss designer Marc Birkigt had created an overhead cam aviation powerplant based on his Hispano-Suiza V8 automobile engine, resulting in a 330 lb engine capable of producing 140 hp at 1,400 rpm. Further refinement of the engine brought the power to 150 hp by July 1915. Given the engine's potential, French officials ordered that production be set up as soon as possible and called upon aircraft designers to create a new high-performance fighter around the engine, called the Hispano-Suiza 8A.
Louis Béchereau, chief designer of the SPAD company, quickly produced drawings for a prototype fighter equipped with the new engine. The SPAD V was basically a smaller version of the SPAD S.A two-seat "pulpit fighter", although as a single seater it dispensed with the so-called "pulpit" which carried the observer in front of the propeller.
One of many common design feature between the new SPAD V and the S.A-2 was the use of a single-bay biplane wing with additional light struts mounted mid bay at the point of junction of the flying and landing wires. This design simplified rigging and reduced flying wire vibration, reducing drag. The fuselage was of the standard construction for the time, consisting of a wooden frame covered with fabric, while the forward part was covered with metal sheeting. A .303 Vickers machine gun was installed above the engine, synchronized to fire through the propeller arc. The prototype was also fitted with a large spinner, to be abandoned later.
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