Designed by André Herbemont to meet a 1930 requirement of the French government for a new fighter capable of achieving a speed of 325 km/h (202 mph) at an altitude of 3.500 m (11.500 ft) (those requirements were later increased to 350 km/h at the same altitude) with an armament of either four machine guns, one 20 mm cannon and two machine guns or two cannons. Herbemont submitted a proposal based on his own previous Blériot-SPAD S.91 design and it was the only biplane contender.
The S.510 was an all-metal, with fabric-covered wings and tail and a monocoque rear fuselage. It was equipped with a fixed landing gear and was powered by a single Hispano-Suiza 12Xbrs liquid-cooled V12 engine rated at 690 hp of power which drove a two-bladed propeller.
Typical armament configuration consisted on four 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine guns mounted under the lower wing, with the exception of the prototype which had two guns mounted on the fuselage. Later production examples were powered by an Hispano-Suiza 12Xcrs which allowed a 20 mm cannon to be mounted between the engine's cylinder banks and fire through the propeller hub.
The first and only prototype flew for the first time on 6th January 1933 and, when tested, some flight problems arose, resulting in the enlengthening of the central fuselage by 40 cm (16 in) and its vertical surfaces being enlarged. When evaluated in 1935 at the Centre d'expériences aériennes militaires (CEAM) at Reims, against the Dewoitine D.500 monoplane (which was already in production) the S.510 showed greater maneuverability and climb rate. Therefore, an order for an initial batch of 60 aircraft was placed on 30th August 1935.
Performance was comparable to that of the British Gloster Gladiator and, with its armament configuration, it had heavier attack capabilities than other biplane fighters of its era, namely the Italian FIAT Cr.32 or Cr.42, or the German Heinkel He.51, among others. However, the S.510 was despised to obsolescence before being adopted officially, although when it was designed, many pilots believed a biplane fighter would perform better than a monoplane in dogfights, thanks to its tighter turning circles. It enjoyed one year of usefulness, as it was adequate for 1936, but it was quickly outclassed by other monoplane fighters such as the Morane-Saulnier Ms.406 or the Dewoitine D.520, to name a few.
The first S.510 were delivered to the Armée de l'Air in early 1936 as a replacement for the Morane-Saulnier Ms.225 of Groupe de Chasse 1/7 (GC 1/7) from May 1937 and the Nieuport-Delage NiD.62 and NiD.629 of GC II/7 from July 1937. That same year they also equipped the Weiser Circus aerobatic team in a display that was held all across France that year. In 1938, after the Munich Crisis, every S.510 was fitted with radios and some of them were equipped with revised exhaust tubes to be used as night fighters. From January 1939, GC 1/7 began to transition to the Morane-Saulnier Ms.406, discarding their last S.510 in February, while GC II/7 began to replace them later that year and by early September (shortly after the start of the war) they had fully replaced the S.510 by Ms.406s.
In August 1939 obsolete fighters placed in storage were assigned to various Escadrilles Régionales de Chasse (ERC - Regional Fighter Flights) to train reservist pilots. Two flights were formed in mainland France equipped with a mixture of S.510 and NiD.622. These were ERC 3/561 at Saint-Inglevert airfield, at Pas-de-Calais and ERC 4/561 at Villacoublay, in Seine-et-Oise. In October both ERC were merged to form Groupe Aérien Régional de Chasse II/561 (GARC II/561) based at Le-Havre-Oteville airfield, in the Seine-Maritime department.
On 18th January 1940 GARC II/561 was renamed to GC III/10 and received Bloch Mb. 151 during the following weeks, to allow the unit to transition to the frontlines. The S.510 were returned to their initial trainer roles and were used as such until the armistice in June 1940.
Around ten S.510 were sent to Algeria and Morocco to serve in ERCs in Oran and Rabat. In May 1940 the ERCs in French North Africa were combined to form a new group, GC III/5 with, among other machines, those ten S.510 previously mentioned. However, in late May they were replaced by Ms.406 machines.
Some reports claim that the S.510 also served with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. However those were proven fake.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blériot-SPAD_S.510
2. http://equinoxe.dk/SCWaircraft/didnt.html
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