SPAD S.VII - Sixth entry, French Users.

We finish the series of entries dedicated to the SPAD S.VII with an entry dedicated to the native users of this excellent airplane and an update on the fourth entry just to update the American users, check the updated entry by clicking here.

First tested in April 1916 it showed an excelent speed (192km/h - 119 Mph) and a remarkable diving performance. Compared to their Nieuport 'rivals', it performed much better. It's rugged airframe made it much harder to shoot it down. However some pilots complained about it's lack of maneouvrability, compared to lighter airplanes like the Nieuport 17.

It arrived at the frontlines in August 1916 in small numbers. It wouldn't be until the first months of 1917 that it would be widely employed at the frontlines. The first versions had many defects, for instance the engine used to overheat in hot weather and didn't warm up in cold weather. Problems that were, generally, solved applying field modifications. For instance, many pilots flew without the engine cowling to make the engine cool down faster, while others flew with the cowling applied in order to make the engine warm faster, everything depending on the weather.

The second batch of airplanes, which solved many of the aforementioned problems, included an improved version of the engine which made the airplane to perform even better, raising it's top speed from 192km/h-119mph to 208 km/h- 129mph. Improvements that were gradually applied to new manufactured models and they became standard.

SPAD S.VII - Fifth entry, British Users.

For this entry we have decided to use the French roundel, but, however, the British one would also be valid as this airplane was also produced (though it wasn't designed) in the UK.

The Royal Flying Corps was the first foreign air service to receive the SPAD S.VII. Only two squadrons used it on the western front, the 19th and 23rd squadrons. However, the flying schools in the UK and the 30th squadron, serving in Mesopotamia (nowadays Iraq), used it. Generally the British-built SPAD were used for training purposes and in Mesopotamian front due to their inferior quality and the French built ones were used in the Western Front. In the western front it was eventually replaced by the Sopwith Dolphin during the early months of 1918.

It is interesting to point out that many sub-variants were made by the British out of this airplane. Initially, the inclusion of two lewis machine-guns above the upper wings (a common feature shared with other British airplanes) was intended to compensate somehow the lack of firepower of the S.VII as it had only one MG, however this method proved to be clumsy against another airplanes but very effective for ground attack missions performing straffing attacks, so we could say that maybe it was one of the earliest multi-role fighters in history.
Another interesting field modification was the one depicted as 'tropicalized'. Taking some parts of an already obsolete SPAD A.2, they made an improved version of an S.VII ready to serve better under desertical enviroments. By cutting the exhaust tubes down, the sand couldn't enter in big quantities into the radiator, the engine could cool down faster, by replacing the standard windshield with a more enclosed metalized one, much less sand was blown into pilots face when flying and by re-enforcing with metal some parts on the vertical stabilizer, the ailerons worked better in a desertical environment.
We shouldn't forget that, years later, during the Second World War, to have tropicalized versions of any fighter (Bf.109 or Spitfire) was a very common feature in almost every army involved in the conflict.

SPAD S.VII - Fourth entry, foreign users vol. 4 *UPDATED*

We keep going with our SPAD S.VII compilation, this time a little bit shorter than usual:

• Red Army/USSR: The Russian Red Army, employed them widely during the Russian civil war and Polish Soviet war and was among the very first fighters used by the Workers' and Peasants' Air Fleet (the precursor of the Soviet Air Force). They were ex-Imperial units or captured ones. 
• Siam/Thailand: The Thai king Rama VI, ordered the creation of an aviation division for the Siamese army, and the very first fighter squadrons were equipped with French built SPAD and Nieuport fighters. Please note that those two profiles are somewhat 'semi-speculative' as we only could find black & white references that were often unreadable.
• Ukraine: The Ukrainian People's Republic got two ex-Russian SPADs and used them in the Polish Soviet war. They were integral part of the Ukrainian first air regiment.
• Uruguay: The Uruguayan military school of aeronautics bought some S.VII together with some S.XIII and used them as trainers but they were also part of their first fighter squadron. However we couldn't find graphical evidence on this, so the colours must be considered as speculative.
• USA: Previously used by American pilots in the famous 124th squadron (Lafayette Squadron), the S.VII was among the very first airplanes used by the USAAS (United States Army Air Service), the precursor of the USAF.
• Yugoslavia: Ex-Serbian airplanes were used as trainers in the first flying schools of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

*UPDATE: We felt that the American users were... incomplete, that's why we decided to expand the USAS users and, in order to be consequent with our own criterions, we decided to treat the Lafayette Squadron as part of the French Aéronautique Militaire (as it was in reality) and therefore take them out of this drawing, only to replace them with more USAS airplanes, but don't worry because you can find the Lafayette squadron one's here..

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**UPDATE: About the Spanish Pujol Comabella: In 1917 SPAD society granted to Pujol Comabella Society of Barcelona (which was shortly after absorved by the Hereter society) some blueprints and incomplete specifications of their best product, the S.VII fighter. The Pujol Comabella society started to make a replica of it as best as they could, getting a nice replica of the original and named as 'España'. However, given the quality of the employed materials or because the blueprints and specifications were incomplete, the performance was inferior to the original. 
That factor and the lack of need of a fighter, because up to that date the only role the Spanish Military had performed was to bomb and strafe Rifean positions in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, made the project to fail given the lack of interest. 

Neither political scenario was favourable, it was in the middle of a great political crisis and at the edge of a revolution which was easily put-down by the army without any help from the aviation, which was highly concentrated in the protectorate of Morocco. 

It is interesting to point out how, the differences. It lacks windshield, the upper nose panel is lifted and the tail has two supporting wooden bars instead of just one, probably changes suggested by the engineer Eduardo Barron who was supervising the construction of the replica. Also it's interesting to see how on the presentation model, the characteristic bird of Georges Guynemer was copied. 

Only 12 of them were built and were declared obsolete and scrapped in 1922.

SPAD S.VII - Third entry, foreign users vol. 3

We continue with our SPAD S.VII saga, this time with even more foreign users of the SPAD S.VII, this entry is a continuation of this other one:

• Poland: One of the main post-war users of the SPAD S.VII and one of the very first airplanes that constituted the Wojska Lotnicze (Polish Air Force) back in 1918. It saw action during the Polish Soviet war.
• Portugal: It made famous in this country because the Portuguese ace Oscar Monteir Torres, the only Portuguese pilot who died in aerial-combat during the great war, flew one of these. When the Portuguese Aviation Corps was founded back in February 1919, the fighter squadron was equipped with S.VIIs. This same squadron was renamed in December 1921 as 'Captain Monteiro Torres Squadron'.
• Romania: Apparently some S.VII were employed during the great war by the Romanian Royal Aeronautics. As we couldn't find graphic evidence, the colours are speculative.
• Imperial Russia: The Imperial Russian Air Service employed them widely in the eastern front of the great war and it was also used by the Whites during the Russian Civil War. It's also worth mentioning that the three versions of this airplane were employed: The ones made by SPAD themselves, the ones made by Blériot and the ones made locally by DUX in Moscow.
• Serbia: Some Serbian pilots, integrated in the French SPA.523  squadron, flew S.VII airplanes which later, after the war would form the very first fighter units of the kingdom of Croats Slovenes and Serbs, or, as was commonly known, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (those will be covered in the next entry). During the great war they were used in the Macedonian (Thessaloniki) Front
• Red Army/USSR: The Russian Red Army, employed them widely during the Russian civil war and Polish Soviet war and was among the very first fighters used by the Workers' and Peasants' Air Fleet (the precursor of the Soviet Air Force). They were ex-Imperial units or captured ones.

Note: We know that theorically those SPAD used by the United Kingdom should be in this entry (as we are following an alphabetical order for the foreign users), but considering that they used it very widely we decided to make a dedicated entry just for them.

SPAD S.VII - Second entry, foreign users vol. 2

Previous note: This is a continuation of this post If you haven't read it, i recommend you to check it out.
We continue with the SPAD S.VII, this time with more foreign users for this French Fighter.

We are covering the next countries this time:

• Imperial Germany: During the very first part of 1918 a single S.VII was captured from the French SPA65 unit. It was heavily repainted by his new owner. 
• Greece: The Royal Hellenic Army Air Service bought some airplanes. The one depicted below served in 1920.
• Kingdom of Italy: Italy used them widely during the Great war and it became very popular since it was flew by various of their best aces like Francesco Baracca or Giorgio Pessi. It was also among the very first planes that composed the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) with planes carried over from the previous Corpo Aeronautico Militare (Military Aeronautical Corps) during 1923.
• Empire of Japan: The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service employed them, allegedly for domestice defense purposes during the 20s. As we couldn't find any graphical evidence, the drawing are speculative.
• Netherlands: The Luchtvaartafdeling (The Dutch Aeronautical corps) employed some SPAD S.VII. Supposedly they were airplanes that were forced to land in neutral Dutch territory during the Great War, as we couldn't find graphical evidence on this one neither, the colours are speculative.
• Peru: Allegiadly Peru used some Ex-Argentinean planes during the early 20s for evaluation purposes. However they were rejected. The graphical evidence on Peruvian SPADs doesn't seem to exist, so the drawing is considered speculative.
• Poland: One of the main post-war users of the SPAD S.VII and one of the very first airplanes that constituted the Wojska Lotnicze (Polish Air Force) back in 1918. It saw action during the Polish Soviet war.

SPAD S.VII - First entry, foreign users vol. 1

We start this series of entries with another heavyweight of the Great War: The SPAD S.VII

The SPAD S.VII was the first of a successful saga of French biplane fighters. It was designed by Louis Béchereau and was produced by the Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) (Society for aviations and it's derivatives). It was renowned for being a sturdy and hard to destroy airplane with good climbing and diving characteristics. It was also good as a gun platform although apparently it was too heavy and less maneouvrable than the contemporaneous Nieuport fighters. Many famous WW1 aces like Guynemer, Baracca or Pentland flew it.

As it was widely used both in the Great war and in the aftermaths it suffered many small field modifications, being the most notorious one the inclusion of skis by the Russian DUX factory.

This entry covers the usage by the next countries:

• Argentina: Bought two aircraft for evaluation purposes.
• Belgium: Widely used by their national aviation corps (Aviation Militaire) during World War I and the post-war period. Most precisely it was used by the 5éme and 10éme escadrilles (5th and 10th squadrons).
• Brazil: Used by their national military aviation service (Serviço de Aviação Militar) in 1920.
• Chile: Another evaluation-only user. The colours are speculative as we couldn't find any photographic or visual evidence.
• Czechoslovakia: One of the main post-war users. It constituted the backbone of the very early Czechoslovak Army Air Force (Československé Letectvo) and some of them were employed during the brief Polish-Czechoslovak war of 1919.
• Estonia: It's been said that some captured ex-Russian airplanes were among the first airplanes that formed the Estonian aviation regiment in the aftermath of the Great War. Just like Chile we couldn't find any supporting evidence and therefore the colours are speculative
• Finland: Finland used DUX-built airplanes in both versions, with skis and without them. However they didn't see action during the Finnish civil war of 1918, as far as we know.
• Imperial Germany: Germany captured various airplanes during 1917, mostly from the French SPA 31 unit and SPA 65. Most of the SPA 31 retained the unit insignia when flying with their new German-owners.