what is it?
The Bleriot-SPAD S.51 was a French fighter aircraft developed in 1924 in response to a French Air Force requirement for an aircraft to replace their obsolete Nieuport-Delage NiD.29s.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 9.5 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 102 years ago, in 1924.
- Top speed is 1.9× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 9.5 m: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1924
- number built
- 60
- role
- fighter
- makers
- Blériot
- engines
- 1× Gnome & Rhône 9Ab Jupiter
- crew
- 1
- length
- 6.5 m
- wingspan
- 9.5 m
- height
- 3.1 m
- max take-off weight
- 1,360 kg
- top speed
- 245 km/h
- range
- —
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q2749455, Wikipedia: Blériot-SPAD S.51 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.