SPAD S.XII

what is it?

The SPAD S.XII or SPAD 12 was a French single-seat biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War developed from the successful SPAD VII by Louis Béchereau, chief designer of the Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD).

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 8 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 203 km/htop speed
• size 883 kgmax take-off weight
• built 300made in total

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 109 years ago, in 1917.
• 🏎️Top speed is 1.6× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1917-07-05

number built

300

role

fighter

origin

🇫🇷 France

makers

Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés

engines

1× Hispano-Suiza 8Cb

crew

1

length

6.4 m

wingspan

8 m

height

2.6 m

max take-off weight

883 kg

top speed

203 km/h

range

—

ceiling

6,850 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.