spadvii

B9920 was British-built by Mann, Egerton & Co., arrived in the USA in late-1918, and was then fitted with an American 150 horsepower Wright-Martin Model-A motor. It was one of four assigned to Ellington Field and may likely be photographed here at Ellington Field prior to April 10, 1919. Assigned to the Victory Loan Flying Circus, Middle-West Flight, it left on that date for a tour that included air shows in 23 different Midwest cities. B9920 was primarily a reserve ship on this tour, the primary Spads used being B9924 and B1374. Not more than two of their four Spads being used in any given air show. Its principal pilot would have been 2nd Lieut. J. Lafton Whitney. It returned to Ellington Field the night of May 12, 1919.

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.

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.