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| Industry | Aeronautics |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1911 (1911) |
| Founder | Armand Deperdussin |
| Defunct | 1921 (1921) |
| Fate | Acquired byBlériot Aeronautique. Brand retired in 1921. |
SPAD (Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés) was a Frenchaircraft manufacturer active between 1911 and 1921. ItsSPAD S.XIII biplane was the most produced Frenchfighter airplane of theFirst World War.
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The company was set up in 1911 asAéroplanes Deperdussin, becoming theSociété de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin in 1912. Its founderArmand Deperdussin (born 1867) had been a travelling salesman and a cabaret singer inLiège andBrussels, before making his fortune in thesilk business. Deperdussin became fascinated by aviation in 1908, and in 1909 he established an aircraft works atLaon. Deperdussin himself was not a designer, but he hired the engineerLouis Béchereau (1880–1970) as technical director. Béchereau was responsible for Deperdussin and SPAD aircraft designs thereafter.
The first Deperdussin aircraft was an unsuccessfulcanard, but their next aircraft, theType A, was an immediate success, and led to a series of closely relatedmonoplanes. Similar to theNieuport IV andMorane-Saulnier G, this was a popular layout before theFirst World War. TheDeperdussin TT was a considerable export success, and 63 were built by theLebedev company in Russia and others atHighgate in London by theBritish Deperdussin Company.[1] From 1911 onward Deperdussin produced aircraft at a new factory atGrenelle, in the suburbs of Paris.
Factories were also established atLe Havre andJuvisy to build motor boats and waterplanes, as well as three flying schools.
The company also produced a number of notable racing aircraft, including the groundbreakingDeperdussin Monocoque, which won the 1912 and 1913Gordon Bennett Trophy races, set several world speed records and was the first airplane to exceed 200 km/h (120 mph). The firstSchneider Trophy competition, held on 16 April 1913 atMonaco, was won by a Deperdussin floatplane at an average speed of 73.63 km/h (45.75 mph).
On 6 August 1913, Armand Deperdussin was arrested for fraud. He had developed expensive tastes and in addition to funding competitions such as theGordon Bennett Cup, he entertained lavishly.The trading arm of theComptoir Industrial et Colonial bank discovered that he had been funding this through fraudulently obtained loans using forged receipts from his silk business as security.[2] He remained incarcerated until his trial in 1917. Despite claims that he used much of the money to help develop France's aviation expertise, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, but as a concession for first offenders he was reprieved ("sursis") and released immediately.[3] Deperdussin committed suicide in 1924.
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After Armand Deperdussin's bankruptcy in 1913 the company went intoadministration and the name was changed toSociété Provisoire des Aéroplanes Deperdussin, the first use of the SPADacronym. With Deperdussin's disgrace, financing stopped and the future of the SPAD company was endangered. A consortium led byLouis Blériot bought the company's assets in 1913 and reorganised it as theSociété Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés, retaining the SPAD acronym.
The first Béchereau-SPAD designs were unusual two-seatbiplanes which attempted to provide a forward-firing machine gun in atractor configuration aircraft. The pilot sat behind the wings, as in a conventional design, while the observer/gunner was seated in a nacelle, orpulpit, in front of the propeller, attached precariously to the landing gear. These designs, theSPAD A-series of models S.A.1, S.A.2, S.A.3, and S.A.4, were built in small numbers, around sixty each for French (mostly S.A.2) and Russian air forces (mostly S.A.4), and were neither popular nor successful. The availability of theNieuport 11 and subsequent development of an effectivemachine gun synchronizer by the French rendered this unusual configuration obsolete.
Other early Béchereau designs for SPAD were less successful. TheSE, a large twin-engine biplane bomber, performed well on trials, but it was not ordered.
Béchereau's first real success was theSPAD S.VII, which superficially resembled a smaller, neater A.2, without the forward gunner's nacelle. Developed from the SPAD V, of which 268 were ordered but none built as SPAD Vs, the SPAD S.VII was a single-seat tractor biplane fighter of simple and robust design powered by the newHispano-Suiza water-cooledV-8 engine. Compared to earlier fighters, when the SPAD VII appeared in 1916 it was a heavy and unmanoeuvrable aircraft, but pilots learned to take advantage of its speed and strength. Some 3,500 SPAD S.VIIs were built in France, 120 in Britain, and 100 in Russia before their capitulation, although many more had been ordered from a new factory inYaroslavl, which was not completed until after theRussian Civil War.Béchereau's subsequent wartime designs followed the basic outline of the SPAD S.VII. The two-seaters, theSPAD XI and SPAD XVI, were built in moderate numbers, around 1,000 of each type, but two-seater SPADs were much less successful than the rivalBreguet 14 (5,500 built) andSalmson 2 (3,200 built). Single-seat developments of the SPAD VII were more successful. TheSPAD XII was a minor variant, the first to use the geared Hispano-Suiza V-8 engine, which allowed it to be armed with a 37 mm (1.46 in) single-shotHotchkiss cannon (moteur-canon) firing through the propeller hub. Tested successfully by aceGeorges Guynemer, the conclusion was that only very skilled pilots could exploit its powerful armament. Accordingly, although 300 were ordered, most were completed as normal SPAD fighters, with one (flown byCharles J. Biddle while with theUSAAS'13th Aero Squadron) and two may have served with the US Air Service in France.
TheSPAD S.XIII was essentially an enlarged SPAD S.VII redesigned around a more powerful geared drive Hispano-Suiza engine, as used on the SPAD XII. This was produced in much greater numbers: the exact total is uncertain, with figures from 7,300 to 8,472 being quoted by different sources. Single-seat SPADs were flown by many ace pilots, including Italy's CountFrancesco Baracca and theUnited States Army Air Service's Capt.Eddie Rickenbacker, with 34 and 26 victories respectively. Georges Guynemer was, as has already been noted, highly successful with the SPAD S.XII, as well as the SPAD S.VII and SPAD S.XIII. At the end of the First World War, all 1,152 single-seat fighters on the strength of French front line air units were SPAD 13s. Nearly 900 SPAD XIII fighters were reported as being used in American service.
Although SPAD had been successful, they were unable to keep up with demand and production of their later fighters was spread out among other aircraft manufacturers, including both direct competitors, as well as numerous companies that would become well known after the war. In 1916, over 98% of SPAD production came from SPAD and Blériot factories. By 1918, this had fallen to 43%, with the majority of SPAD XIII production from licensed manufacturers. SPAD designs accounted for around 20% of French aircraft produced during World War One.
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Post-war the company became Blériot-SPAD. The first of its designs to be known by this name was Bécherau'smonocoqueSPAD S.XX biplane. Despite the prototype being flown in 1918, SPAD 20 deliveries did not begin until 1920 when post war reductions and a preference for the more capableNieuport-Delage NiD.29 limited orders to 93.
The return of peace also meant that the company had to deal with substantial liabilities under theexcess profits tax of 1 July 1916. As modified in 1917, this imposed an 80% tax rate on "excess profits". With the future uncertain, SPAD was fully incorporated into the Blériot organisation in 1921, and the company effectively disappeared, although a number of Blériot types were marketed as SPADs.
