French Cockades on Spads

[SCMc]

The ratio of the diameters of the blue:white:red circles of a standard French cockade is 1:2:3.



Most French Planes seem to conform to this (based on my limited experience), including this Spad VII at Rosebud's Archive.

At least some Spads have a ratio of 1:3:5, like the British. Some examples are:

Guynemer's Spad VII at Le Musée de L'Air et de l'Espace
A Spad XIII at Rosebud's

Does anyone know which was the predominant cockade on Spads? Did the the type depend on builder or period of time?

Any help would be appreciated,

Steve

[gilles]

Hello

The size and location of cockades depended on the manufacturer.
According to the article "project Butterfly" published in Cross & cockade vol 13 #4, Spad, Blériot, Kellner, Levasseur and de Marçay used 1:3:5 cockade. Only SAFCA and Bernard used 1:2:3 ratio.
That would means 1:3:5 cockade was very much more predominant.

Gilles

[SCMc]

Gilles,

Thank you for replying. This is just what I wanted to know.

Does anyone know of other French planes that had predominantly 1:3:5 Cockades?

Steve

[gilles]

It seems there was not a norm for the cockade. I have quickly watched some pictures and I can't find any logic.
I guess every manufacturer and sub-contractor had his design. Even the location of the cockade varies a lot.

Here is a quick list for "small blue center" cockade :
most "Dorand" AR
Caudron
Maurice Farman
some Morane
Paul Schmitt
Sopwith
Salmson

1:2:3 cockades were mostly used on Breguets and Nieuports.

FWIW, the first official cockades, in 1912, had the following diameters: blue 0.4 meter, white 0.7m and red 1m (close to 1:2:3 indeed)

HTH
Gilles

[SCMc]

Gilles,

Thank you for looking into it. It is not what I wanted to learn. I would have much preferred to have some reasonably simple guidelines, but I should have expected the variation. I had looked at Caudrons, but should have been more careful in my observations. Looking back I see some of both.

Thanks again,

Steve