Early Bird Spad 13 Explained

The Early Bird Spad 13 (also SPAD 13) is an American homebuilt aircraft that was designed and produced by the Early Bird Aircraft Company of Erie, Colorado. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit and also in the form of plans for amateur construction.^[1]

Design and development

The Spad 13 is an 80% scale replica of the First World War SPAD S.XIII. It features a strut-braced biplane layout, a single-seat open cockpit, fixed conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration.

The aircraft is made from a mix of steel and aluminum tubing, with some wooden parts and its flying surfaces are covered with doped aircraft fabric. Its 20.171NaN1 span wing has a wing area of 142square feet. The cockpit width is 24inches. The acceptable power range is 80to and the standard engine used is the 850NaN0 fuel injected Geo Tracker four-cylinder, inline, liquid-cooled, four stroke automotive conversion powerplant.

The Spad 13 has a typical empty weight of 550lb and a gross weight of 800lb, giving a useful load of 250lb. With full fuel of the payload for pilot and baggage is 196lb.

The supplied kit included the Tracker engine. The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the kit to be 600 hours.

Operational history

By 1998 the company reported that 35 kits had been sold and one aircraft was flying.

Notes and References

1. Purdy, Don: AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition, page 147. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.