On July 27, 1917, a secret new weapon took to the skies over the Western Front. It carried a devastatingly large armament based on naval designs, engineered to fire through the aircraft's propeller shaft. Secrecy surrounding the project was so intense that contemporary accounts reportedly even censored the gun's report. When it finally saw combat, the effect of the 37mm cannon on wood and canvas was overwhelming: "The effect was immediate, the aircraft was ripped in two and burned, the wings slumped to one side, the fuselage to the other". This book tells the remarkable story of the World War I spad-cannon aircraftfrom early French experiments with cannon-armed planes, through the influence of a fighter pilot's fame and family connections on government decisions, to the emergence of the spad frontline aircraft and their relatively unknown contribution to the war effort. It also examines the legacy they carried into the next major war.
Author
Wagstaff, Jonathan J.
Title
Boum! A History of the Spad XII Canon
Details
English text, paperback, 240 photos, 21 color profiles, drawings, large format. 241 pages.
State
new
Subtitle
How France’s Greatest Ace & Aerospace Engineers of WWI created the World’s first production canon-Armed Fighter
Aeronaut Books Golden Currant Circle 45 NV 89511 Reno Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika
