I have been fascinated with a little know WWI aircraft flown by Frances top aces. The SPAD XII Ca. was modified SPAD with a mounted cannon. Read the accumulated info I gathered from the web on this plane below.
Charlie3 and I put our heads together and came up with a working set of rules for the SPAD Cannon plane. Charlie3 painted the plane. I did the art for the card.
Whilst on leave, and as active as ever, George Guynemer, France’s top ace at the time, discussed with the various authorities in the aviation field the possible improvements to the fighting ability of the current French fighter aircraft, and the Spad S VII in particular. One of these experts – Louis Bechereau, the SPAD Company’s senior designer – proposed the modification of the deadly 37mm (1.5-inch) Hotchkiss cannon to fire through the hollow crankshaft of the Spad S VII’s Hispano-Suiza V-8 engine. The project came to fruition and a trial commissioning of the Spad XII.Ca. (i.e. with the cannon) followed.
Using the SPAD VII as a base, SPAD engineers mounted at 37 mm cannon barrel through the propeller hub, in addition to the standard single Vickers machine gun. The hollow shaft ran between the cylinder blocks of the Hispano-Suiza power plant so that when the cannon was fired, its shell actually passed through the center of the engine and exited out the center of the prop. Once fired, the cannon had to be reloaded manually, one shell at a time. The pilot reached down between his legs and opened the breech, ejected the spent shell and reloaded another. Once the breech was opened, the cockpit quickly filled with smoke and fumes. Reloading the cannon was therefore extremely difficult unless the pilot could manage to break free of the combat for a few moments
Georges Guynemer, whose prompting led to the development of the cannon-SPAD, used the first SPAD XII in July of 1917. He scored his 49th through 52nd kills in it, referring fondly to the machine as his "avion magique." He was still flying the machine intermittently with the new SPAD XIII when he was killed in action on September 11, 1917.
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