SPAD S.XV

The SPAD S.XV was a single-seat fighter designed and built in France to meet the 1918 C1 specification for a medium altitude fighter. André Herbemont of SPAD designed a single-bay, equal-span biplane with un-staggered wooden wings and a moulded plywood monocoque fuselage, powered by a 160 horsepower Gnome Monosoupape 9Nc rotary engine in a close cowling and armed with two synchronised Vickers machine guns. It first flew on 31 July 1917, but the low power of the Gnome engine limited any performance advantage over the SPAD S.XIII and production was not authorised. None were accepted by the Aviation militaire, although the monocoque fuselage idea was reused in later Herbemont designs, and a post-war sporting version was built for René Fonck and Charles Nungesser.