07261 SPAD S.A.4 FRENCH IWW FIGHTER

The SPAD SA4 was a French WW1 fighter with a biplane design. The prototype's flight took place in 1915, and the machine entered mass production shortly after. About 60 aircraft of this type were built in its course. The drive was provided by a single Le Rhone 9C or 9J engine with 90 and 110 HP respectively. The length of the aircraft was 7.3 meters with a wingspan of 9.55 meters. The deck armament consisted of a single 7.7 mm machine gun. The SPAD SA4 was created as a development of another aircraft from this manufacturer - the SA2 model. Compared to its predecessor, it differed primarily in a different power unit and marginal strengthening of the hull structure. However, it retained the same very unusual layout in which the gunner's cockpit was in the nose of the plane, separated from the rest of the fuselage by a propeller. Such an unusual design, generating a lot of problems in the course of operation, was intended to provide the shooter with the best possible field of fire from a machine gun. SPAD SA4 planes did not play a major role in French aviation, but were used on a fairly large scale in Russian aviation, where they were used until 1917.