British Spads: British Aircraft of WWI | Volume 9
By Matt Bittner
Author: Colin Owers
Publisher: Aeronaut Books
ISBN: 978-1-953201-97-3
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 223
Aeronaut Books has been producing a series of books on British aircraft for some time. This volume - Volume 9 - deals with British Spads, the 7, 12 and 13.
There weren't a lot of Spads flown by Britain but they did use them as a stop-gap measure, while ramping up production of their own fighters like the SE5a. While they did have initial problems with their Spads - many being built in Britain - they did figure it all out and they were used somewhat successfully.
Here are the book's chapters:
- The Hispano-Suiza Engine & a New Fighter
- The Spad S.7 in Combat & Early Difficulties
- Combat Successes & a New Engine
- British-Built Spad S.7 Fighters
- Mesopotamia
- Home Establishment
- The Spad S.12 & S.13
- What the RFC Thought of the Spad Fighters
- Post-war British Spads & Survivors
- Colours and Markings
Overall this is a nice book covering the British use of Spads very well. My only complaint is that while the text explains the difficulty with heating and cooling the engine - and the different radiator and radiator shutter designs - none of them are shown as plans. If you want to see how these designs actually looked, you'll have to track down the excellent book authored by Tomasz Groncaewski and Seweryn M. Fleischer, unfortunately - I believe - out of print.
Many thanks to Aeronaut Books for sending this to review. Contact them direct for ordering information.