SPAD S.XIII

what is it?

The SPAD S.XIII is a French biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War, developed by Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) from the earlier and highly successful SPAD S.VII. During early 1917, the French designer Louis Béchereau, spurred by the approaching obsolescence of the S.VII, decided to develop two new fighter aircraft, the S.XII and the S.XIII, both using a powerful new geared version of the successful Hispano-Suiza 8A engine. The cannon armament of the S.XII was unpopular, but the S.XIII proved to be one of the most capable fighters of the war, as well as one of the most-produced, with 8,472 built and orders for around 10,000 more cancelled at the Armistice. By the end of the First World War, the S.XIII had equipped virtually every fighter squadron of the Aéronautique Militaire.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 8.3 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 211 km/htop speed
• size 857 kgmax take-off weight
• built 8,472made 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

1917-04

number built

8,472

role

biplane fighter

origin

🇫🇷 France

makers

Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés

engines

1× Hispano-Suiza 8Ba, Bb or Bd / Hispano-Suiza 8Bec / Hispano-Suiza 8Bc

crew

1

length

6.3 m

wingspan

8.3 m

height

2.6 m

max take-off weight

857 kg

top speed

211 km/h

range

—

ceiling

6,800 m

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