Société de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin
Société de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin ( SPAD ) was a French aircraft manufacturer .
The beginning - the Deperdussin era
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The SPAD company was founded in 1909 by Armand Deperdussin , a silk manufacturer . Under his leadership, SPAD was the abbreviation for "Société pour Avions Deperdussin". The company's headquarters were in Bétheny near Reims .
Under chief engineer Louis Béchereau , SPAD manufactured some sensational racing aircraft during the Deperdussin era:
The Blériot era
When Deperdussin was arrested for embezzlement in 1913, SPAD had to file for bankruptcy and was subsequently bought up by aviation pioneer Louis Blériot in 1914 . Since Blériot wanted to give the company a different name on the one hand, but on the other hand wanted to keep the factory's familiar initials, he gave it the name “Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérives”. Béchéreau worked closely with the Swiss chief engineer of the Hispano-Suiza company Marc Birkigt .
Under the direction of Blériot, the Béchéreau / Birkigt team at SPAD produced the following well-known samples:
- SPAD A 3
- SPAD A 4
- SPAD A 5
- SPAD S.VI
- SPAD S.VII
- SPAD S.VIII
- SPAD S.IX
- SPAD S.XI
- SPAD S.XII
- SPAD S.XIII
- SPAD S.XIV
- SPAD S.XV
- SPAD S.XVI
- SPAD S.XVII
- SPAD S.XVIII
- SPAD S.XX
- SPAD S.XXI
- SPAD S.XXII
- SPAD S.XXIV
- SPAD p.26
- SPAD p.31
The end of the company
The height of the SPAD aircraft was the time of the First World War . After that, the company's reputation declined, not least because Louis Blériot had founded a new company for the production of commercial aircraft after the war, the Blériot Aéronautique , and thus a competitor to his own company. In 1921 the previously autonomous SPAD was integrated into the Blériot Aéronautique ; In 1936, Blériot's aircraft company, like other French aircraft manufacturers, was nationalized.
literature
- Kenneth Munson: Combat aircraft 1914–1919 , Orell Füssli-Verlag, Zurich 1968
- Heinz Nowarra: The Development of Aircraft 1914–1918 , Munich 1958
- Enzo Angelucci, Paolo Matricardi: Airplanes. From the beginnings to the 1st World War (= Falken-Handbuch in color. Vol. 391). Falken-Verlag Sicker, Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-8068-0391-9 .
