spad

Spad VII B9913 was photographed at San Francisco while being unloaded or loaded onto the railway car on April 12, 1919, for their Victory Loan Flying Circus, Far West Flight air show that day. At left of the car is James Earl Fraser's original plaster statue "End of the Trail" sculpted for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition held on this very site. A slumping warrior on horseback symbolized the worsening plight of Native Americans. War Shortages prevented Fraser from casting this iconic figure in bronze. The structures associated with the Exposition were mostly demolished in 1916.

A8796 was one of 100 Spads 7 in the A 8794/8893 batch built by the Bleriot and Spad Aircraft Works of Addlestone and wears standard RFC camouflage colors of PC10 and "Battleship Gray." It had a English-built 150 horsepower Hispano-Suiza 8Aa motor. The complete absence of louvers in A8796's flank cooling panels is noteworthy. You can barely see the pitot tube at the top of the port forward interplane strut. A8796 was subjected to performance tests at No. 1 Aircraft Depot on June 14, 1917. Its service ceiling was 18,000 feet. Its maximum speed at ground level was 120 mph, 115 mph at 5,000 feet, 102 mph at 10,000 feet, and 85 mph at 15,000 feet. Rate of climb was 5 minutes to reach 5,000 feet, 12 minutes to reach 10,000 feet, and 20 minutes, 40 seconds to reach 15,000 feet. The English Bleriot Spads had a poorer performance than their French counterparts. See Wind-Sock Datafiles 8, Spad 7.C1, p. 3 (1988). Also see AIR Enthusiast Fifteen, "The First Fighting Spads," pp. 58-77. April-July 1981.

A Victory Loan Flying Circus SPAD being packed into a rail car. The copy of James Earl Fraser’s 1915 statue End of the Trail in the background is interesting, especially with it being so close to the railroad tracks. There have been many copies of the statue made so its presence does not help in identifying a location.