SPAD S.XIII

SPAD S.XIII was a biplane of single-seat hunting French of the First World War designed by Louis Béchereau and manufactured by the company SPAD.

SPAD S.XIII was a version improved of SPAD S.VII, with the result that their appearance was very similar. This plane profited from several improvements compared to its predecessor, such as for example the Envergure slightly increased or a more powerful engine. This resulted in appreciably improving its characteristics of flight, which were already excellent for SPAD S.VII. Moreover the S.XIII was equipped with a second machine-gun, which made a frightening hunter of it.

After its first flight, the April 4th 1917, the orders of various air forces started to flow and as of at the end of May 1917 the first S.XIII were operational on the face where it quickly replaced the S.VII and the hunters Nieuport.

The S.XIII showed remarkable qualities operational, which made assemble the number of ordered specimens to approximately 10.000, but much of these orders were cancelled at the end of the conflict. On the whole 8.472 apparatuses of this type all the same were built and used, beside the French air force, by the air forces of the Belgium, of Italy, the Great Britain and the the United States. After the war, good number of apparatuses were still exported in Belgium, with the Japan, in Poland and Czechoslovakia.

SPAD S.XVII was an alternative of the S.XIII intended for the air recognition.

Development project of its successor, SPAD S.XXI, was abandoned at the end of the war.

List aces flying on SPAD S.XIII

External bonds

Site on this plane

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