Profile of the Spad XIII in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. © John M. Shea

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Established in 1911 as Aéroplanes Deperdussin, the Société de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin went through bankruptcy and emerged as the Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés, the latter two company names both having the acronym S.P.A.D.

The Spad VII first saw service in September, 1916 with Escadrille N.3.

The Spad XIII was based on the Spad VII, and was a larger, more powerful plane. It entered service in May 1917.

The US Army Air Service replaced the Nieuport 28 with the Spad XIII, equipping 16 squadrons. The plane was also flown by the Italian and Belgian air forces.

Some models of the Spad XIII were fitted with incendiary Le Prieur rockets on the struts. The rockets were inaccurate and only moderately successful against observation balloons.

By the end of the war, nine French companies had built close to 8,500 of the planes.

Engine: 220hp Hispano-Suiza BEc 8-cylinder Vee piston engine

Maximum speed: 224kph/139mph; ceiling: 6,650m/21,815ft; endurance: 2hr

Length: 6.3m/20ft 8in; wingspan: 8.1m/26ft 7in

Armament: two fixed forward-firing 7.69mm/.303in Vickers machine guns

Spad XIII is an aircraft: single-seat scout plane.

Statistics for Spad XIII (1)

Type	Statistic	Source
Maximum speed (mph)	139 mph	Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes by Michael Sharpe

Some books about Spad XIII (1)

Title	Author
Spad Scouts SVII - SXIII	Bruce, J.M.; Illustrated by Michael P. Roffe and Richard Ward