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Bleriot-Spad 510


Commontsar

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Curious to see what people know about this nifty aircraft. It kind of was inter-war, but was also kind of Phoney/Early War. I'd like to put it here along with it's contemporaries, the Hs129, the Cr42, and the Gladiator (to name a few).

Though this didn't have the same success I'm curious what people think about it. I think it's very beautiful, and seems to have been pretty well equipped too. Need to find a kit of it, but they're super rare ;(

A bit of info:

"To meet the requirements of the French 1930 fighter programme, Andre Herbemont evolved the Bleriot SPAD 510. The Type 510, which was ordered as a single prototype to participate in the programme, was of allmetal construction with a duralumin monocoque rear fuselage, and fabric-covered wings and tail assembly. Powered by an Hispano-Suiza 12Xbrs 12-cylinder Vee liquid-cooled engine rated at 690hp 4000m, the Bleriot SPAD 510 was flown for the first time on 6 January 1933. After protracted evaluation, during which the centre fuselage was lengthened by 40cm to rectify a shortcoming in longitudinal stability and the vertical tail surfaces were enlarged to improve yaw characteristics, the type was ordered into production in August 1935. The first of 60 production examples were delivered early in the following year, the final two aircraft being accepted with the HS 12Xcrs engine and a 20mm Hispano-Suiza motor cannon. The standard armament comprised four wing-mounted MAC 1934 7.5mm guns. The Type 510 proved to be the last fighter biplane to be ordered for the Armee de l'Air.

W.Green, D.Swanborough "The Complete Book of Fighters", 2000"

SPAD_510-Dijon38.jpg

11766.jpg

snajdr29.jpg

Edited by Commontsar
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Curious to see what people know about this nifty aircraft. It kind of was inter-war, but was also kind of Phoney/Early War. I'd like to put it here along with it's contemporaries, the Hs129, the Cr42, and the Gladiator (to name a few).

Henschel 129 was a much later twin-engined attack monoplane. Even Henschel 123 (a single-engined biplane) was a dive bomber, leaving Heinkel 51 and Arado 68 as the only similar German fighters.

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Very interesting. I was vaguely aware the 510 existed, but did not realize it had advanced features such as the monocoque rear fuselage.

Still, given the date of the original specification and prototypes (and speaking strictly off the top of my head as opposed to any effort at actual research), I would place it firmly in the pre-war category. I would suggest its contemporaries, besides the German ones already mentioned, are machines such as the Hawker Fury, Gloster Gauntlet, Fiat CR.32, Polikarpov I-15, Kawasaki Ki-10, and Avia 534; all of which were either out of service by WW2...or made their pilots wish that were so.

Apparently a few 510's were ordered by the Spanish Republicans, but did not actually participate in the conflict.

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It certainly looks very happy in the third photo, with that big cheesy grin!

Sounds like an interesting plan. Tally Ho!

Christian the Married and exiled to africa

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The French mag 'Avions' did a two-part article on this A/C some years ago.

No BS510s went to Spain - this is usually a case f mistaken identity with a single much-earlier Spad 51.

One squadron of BS510s was still in use by a second-line Regional Fighter unit (ERC 561? - I'd have to dig out the above-mentioned 'Avions' mag, & I'm not sure exactly where it is!) in the Calais-Dunkirk area in the winter of 1939-40. They had been replaced by more modern a/c by May 1940

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I quite like it too.

If you are good at treasure finding, good at scratch-building and like hard work there were 1/72 resin kits available from Dujin, Vami and Eurokit and 1/48 by AJP - as the OP says "super-rare". Let me know if you find one! I imagine the best chance is a re-issue of the Dujin.

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