The Spad was the ultimate model of the top-of-the-line French fighter in World War I and the most prevalent fighter type flown by the American Expeditionary Force. Fifteen of the 16 AEF pursuit squadrons flew Spad XIIIs by the Armistice on November 11, 1918. Deliveries to the Americans began in March 1918, almost nine months after French units started receiving their aircraft. By the time the Americans began flying this Spad, the German Fokker D.VII had been introduced, and once more, as had happened throughout the war, the balance of power in the air tipped to the Central Powers. The Spad XIII offered a number of evolutionary improvements over the Spad VII (such as a more powerful engine and stronger structure), but its major improvement over the earlier version was the fact it carried two machine guns. The AEF obtained 189 of these earlier aircraft, and the Lafayette Escadrille, the group of volunteer American pilots flying for France, was flying this type when the unit was absorbed by the AEF in early 1918 and became the 103d Aero Squadron. Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, the commander of the 94th Aero Squadron and America's "Ace of Aces," recorded most of his victories in the Spad XIII, and 2d Lt. Frank Luke, Jr. (27th Aero Squadron), scored all of his "kills" (13 of which came in one week) in this biplane fighter. The last solo American aerial victory in World War I came on November 10, 1918, when Maj. Maxwell Kirby recorded his first and only "kill." The Bolling Commission chose the Spad XIII as one of the foreign- designed aircraft for production in the US, but orders for 2,000 aircraft to be built by Curtiss were canceled. Almost half of the Spad XIIIs for the US were delivered after the Armistice, and the Army Air Service used them into the mid-1920s. In addition to the Spad VII and XIII, the AEF also obtained 35 Spad XIs and six examples of the two-seat Spad XVI, one of which was used by Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell, commander of the American air forces on the Western Front.
| Contractors: | Société Anonyme pour l'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) |
| Locations Built: | Surenes, France |
| Number Built: (USAF) | Approx 8,400 (893) |
| First Flight: | On or about March 22, 1917. |
| First Flight Model: | Spad XIIIC.1 |
| First Flight Location: | Unconfirmed but most likely Villacoubly, France |
| First Flight Pilot: | Lieutenant Salze |
| Models/Variants: | Spad XIIIC.1 |
| Powerplant: | One Hispano-Suiza 8 Be liquid-cooled V-8 of 220 hp |
| Wingspan: | 26 ft 6 in. |
| Length: | 20 ft 4-1/4 in. |
| Height: | 7 ft 8-1/2 in. |
| Weight: | 1,862 lb gross |
| Armament: | Two Vickers or Marlin .303-cal. machine guns. |
| Accommodation: | Pilot only |
| Cost: | Approx $10,000 |
| Max. Speed: | 139 mph |
| Range: | Approx. 200 mi. |
| Ceiling: | 22,300 ft. |
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