SPAD S.Ⅶ C S.ⅩⅢ - the Great Fighters of the Great War

摘要

World War I started when flying was still in its infancy. Shortly before the outbreak of the war the first aircraft had found their way into military use with the notion that these fragile contraptions might be used for observation (although Italy had already used them to drop bombs in 1912). On the ground, artillery and machine guns transformed the war into a conflict of industrial killing. The machine gun when added to the aircraft transformed it. Manufacturers designed specialised machines such as reconnaissance, bomber, and of course, fighter aircraft. What started as individual 'heroic'duels in the skies using pistols and rifles transformed into bloody air battles.Tasked with denying the sky's use to the enemy's spotting and reconnaissance machines, the fighter plane or scout was deemed an essential part of the air war. And fighters were the domain of the French company SPAD.