Magic machine

[Old_Nick]

I have read that Guynemer had a small cannon mounted in one of his SPAD VI. Did he ever shot anyone down with it?

Also, read somewhere that he mounted a camera and recorded a couple confirmed kills. The last sounds fishy to me.

Old Nick

[gregoire]

You are talking about the spad 12 it was a develpment of the spad 7 with a 37mm cannon firing trought the propeler Guynemer have been involved in the development of such plane. a few other ace have flown it (including english and italian pilot). It was a single shot with manual loading. the plane was good plane and if I remember well Guynemer scored a few kill in it ( at least a double).
In all in the hand of a great pilot (Fonk Guynemer or other) it was a sucess
Guynmer was in love with this plane (that we can called his plane due to its involvment in the development) if you read french I sugest you look at the book Guynemer les avions d'as it give a good description of Guynemr relation with its plane and with his spad 12, his Avion Magique as he called it in particular

[PeterL]

Nick, if you'll permit a little self promotion here. Go to http://www.wwimodeler.com/storks.html click on "SPADS" then select "SPAD 12". I have a short article on the type there.

[Barrett]

"Old Nick" was the tactical callsign of VF-111, the navy's Sundowners who bagged bandits in WW Deuce, Korean, and Vietnam.

Barrett
Honorary Sundowner

[Dave_Kent]

Hello:

With regard to the photos, the book GEORGES GUYNEMER, Hylands, 1987 reprinted 9 or 10 of the scenes of air fighting. They are less dramatic than the photos in DEATH IN THE AIR, but them Guynemer's aren't faked.

Dave

[Old_Nick]

Thanks for the information!

Barrett, couild you please tell me more!

Peter, I'll check the site out right away.

Dave many thnaks I will also try and look them up. While I do not have a great library, my wife works at Weidner library at Harvard University. Mrs Weidner lost her husban and son on the Titanic. The son was a book collector. She funded the library with provisions; 1. they buy one of each book that comes out in the USA and 2. all undergrads take a swimming test Probably the largest of its type anywhere. We have a interesting game of me sending obscure books and she finding and taking them out for me. Hasn't let me down yet!

Old Nick

[Lufbery]

Old Nick,

You can see Guynemer's Gun Camera pictures (along with the pic of the mounting) at this link:

http://204.83.160.230/archive/b/archive2.htm

Also, in Spad Fighters in Action (Squadron/Signal), they mention that the cannon was a single shot, and had to be loaded by hand. The book says that the reason the plane was only developed in small numbers was that the gunsmoke from the cannon tended to induce nausea in the pilot. :P

Regards,

[chip55]

Hello
Lufbery I have heard that carbide (?) can do that... :P

Be well

chip55

[Old_Nick]

Lufbery

Checked out the pictures and they were much better then I expected. Many thanks for the tip!

Old Nick

[Lufbery]

No problem.

In one sense, the air-to-air pics aren't that impressive -- but then they're not fakes either.