SPAD SA Series - Foreign Users

Today we bring you a new French airplane which, despite not being the best that France offered during the war, it achieved some renown when piloted by Russian hands.

The SPAD SA. was a tractor biplane of unorthodox design which, in order to achieve a forward firing airplane (don't forget that when this airplane was designed, neither France nor any of the entente countried had the synchronized machine gun technology) , placed a machine-gun equipped nacelle in front of the pilot placing the engine between the pilot and the gunner.

In foreign service it was offered to Italy, who rejected it and to Russia, where they received some field modifications like the replacement of skis instead of wheels. Although the Russian spectatives for this airplane were low (since the word spad in Russian means 'Slump' or 'Plummet') at least two crews achieved some success with this airplane. In november 1916 one aerial victory was claimed by the 2nd Lieutenant Vladimirovich and his gunner Bashinskiy.
It's also known that at least one served with the Bolsheviks during the Russian civil war before it was retired for being obsolete.