FD Scale Aircraft 9: The Next Generation

Recently a book about the aeronautical history of Spain fell in my hands and, although being in Spanish, i used it to test my skills in Spanish language. Apart from the history of the various flying machines which flew over Spain and her colonies it also had various profile drawings that i haven't see them in the internet, so i decided to draw them.

This post would be some kind of a monographic about the history of the Spanish aviation, during it's earlier years, ranging from 1909 to 1930 and covering the main wars that Spain fought at those times, namely the Second Melillan Campaign (1909-1911), the Third Melillan Campaign (1911-1912) -sorry but there's not wikipedia link for this one- and, the most important of them all, the Rif War.

There are, however, some airplanes which i couldn't repaint because they have not been drawn in FD scale, like the Santos-Dumont Demoiselle or the Farman F.50, among others.

Background
In 1894 the aerostationary service was created and, coinciding with the appointment as commander of that service, the, by then commander Pedro Vives Vich an instructions center was created in Guadalajara where, from then on (1896), the studies for the obtention of the rank of pilot and aerostation observer were imparted.
The balloons stationed in Morocco proved to be very useful in observation duties, artillery calibration, catrographical making and scouting and they operated until the end of hostilities.

First Period: 1909-1913

Bleriot XI, Spain:
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As it happened in many other countries around the world, the first airplane to gain fame and be adquired officialy by a government, was this one.
First seen in Spain in an exhibition where it flew around the hipodrome of Barcelona in 1910, it was thanks to an Uruguayan pilot named Mario García Cames who obtained the tittle of pilot in the piloting school of Pau, France. School which was founded by Louis Blériot himself.

However, the economical situation of this pilot was not very good and he had contracted many debts with the Valencian boilermaker company Vilanova Hermanos (brothers Vilanova) which accepted the delivery of Cames Blériot in order to pay the debts. He gave them the airplane and, as the goal of the company was to start manufacturing airplanes, they hired an industrial engineer named Luis Acedo who helped them in rebuilding the airplane, however they discarded the idea and the only built prototype ended up hanging from the ceiling of one of their workshops. That way they made one of the first unauthorized copies of an airplane.

Farman MF.III Spain:
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Farman F.7 Spain:
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The Farman F.III and the F.7 are closely linked, that's why they are together.
On 13th October 1913 a telegram was received in the Cuatro Vientos airfield (Madrid), commanding the inmediate preparation of an airplane squadron with it's corresponding vehicle fleet, to be sent to Morocco. That way, in the end of 1913 the first squadron arrived on Ceuta Ceuta under the command of Captain Alfredo Kindelán (who later on was one of the commanding persons of the Nationalist air force during the Spanish civil war) and composed by 11 airplanes, 4 Maurice Farman MF.7, 4 Löhner B.I Pfeil and 3 Nieuport IIG. The training equipment which formed the pilots of that squadron were Farman F.III based at Cuatro Vientos airfield.

Second Period 1914-1918

Morane-Saulnier G "Artal" Spain:
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During the month of December 1913 three Morane-Saulnier G arrived on Tétouan. These were bought by the count of Artal who donated them to the army having marked the airplanes with his surname. These three formed another squadron.

Nieuport IVG: For the drawing, check here:
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... 80#p125506

One of these Nieuport IVG, which formed another squadron, this time in Melilla flew the strait of Gibraltar for the first time in direct flight Seville-Tétouan in February 1914.

The beginning of the First world war meant a serious setback for the Military aeronautic because their suppliers didn't sell them. This forced the aeronautical service to administer their assets very carefully due to the shortage of replacements.

Third Period 1919-1922

Breguet XIV, Spain:
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The Breguet XIV played an important role bombing the rebel positions (and small villages too) and they proved to be very effective.

As curiosity it should be noted the top right one, nicknamed Manila, because it was commanded by a Philippinean-Spanish creole who fled Manila after the Spanish American war and, as you can see, there were many of them sponsored by private companies.

The Breguet 14T was included, despite being of French nationality, because it was the first commercial airplane which flew over Spain. It covered the route Tolouse-Rabat and it's limited range forced it to make various stops in Spain. It's flight plan was: Tolouse-Barcelona-Alicante-Malaga-Rabat. This forced the Latécoère company to set up -and operate- various private airfields in the aforementioned cities, and that's how the first rustic airport net was created in Spain. It was opened in September 1919 and the achievement of this deed, hurted greatly the Spanish national pride, because some foreign company achieved something, in Spanish soil, that they haven't achieved yet. It wouldn't be until 1922 when the Spanish first commercial route was opened.

Caudron G.3, Spain:
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Already outdated by 1919 -when Spain bought them- they were used as trainers in the newly created flying schools in Getafe and Seville, however, as they were very outdated, for that time, they were soon replaced by the newer and better Avro 504K.

Avro 504K, Spain:
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The avro 504 set a milestone in the history of Spanish aviation -both civilian and military- because it was responsible for various great deeds.
Bought by the army to replace the already obsolete Caudron G.3, it was in active service in this role until 1936 having taught this way, from 1919, hundred of pilots how to fly.

In the civilian aviation it achieved many deeds, like being the first airplane to fly around the whole Spain in 1924 or having served as a propagandistic airplane -the first airplane to serve in that role in Spain- for the conservative and pro monarchical newspaper ABC.

Airco-De Havilland DH-4 "Rolls", Spain:
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This bomber was very famous because it bombed the bazaar of Bu Hermana, halfway from Melilla to Al Hoceima (known as Alhucemas by the spaniards) which used a somewhat original technique. This technique consisted of switching the engine off before arriving the bazaar in order to not make noise and catch that way as many people as possible inside and prevent them from fleeing, and drop the bombs while gliding. This type of attack was performed first in January 1922. It was nicknamed Rolls after the most famous land vehicle produced by the British Empire during that decade.

Airco DH.9, Spain:
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This airplane saw limited service in Africa mainly because it was more expensive than the already proved to be effective, at least for the African theater, DH.4. The only ones that served in Africa operated from Melilla and were the first ones to be sent to operate in the Spanish Sahara in 1928, when the situation in the Rif was calmed.

It also was used in the bombing training section of the Getafe flying school, but what it made it really famous was the civilian variant. It was the first airplane to operate a Spanish route, under a Spanish company, the CETA (Compañía Española de Tráfico Aéreo) - Spanish Air Traffic Company- covering the route Seville-Larache, the first civilian air route. It was achieved in 1922 and this modified DH.9 could only carry two passengers.

Martinsyde F.4 Buzzard, Spain:
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Bought by the army, it proved to be a wasteful spending (just like the ansaldo SVA) because this airplane was mainly an air superiority fighter and the Moroccan enemy hadn't any fighter that could take down a Spanish airplane. Ironically this plane is famous thank to the enemies they were supposed to fight because these captured some airplanes, and made the plans of the president of the Rif Republic, Abd el Krim of creating their own air force, dangerously close for spanish misfortune.
However, the captured airplanes were destroyed in an air raid.

Ansaldo S.V.A 5, Spain:
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Just like the Matinsyde Buzzard, it proved to be a waste of money because it was an air superiority fighter and Rifeans didn't have any airplane so it spent most of it service under spanish rule performing reconnaissance missions or doing strafing attacks.

Fourth period: 1923-1930

Bristol F2B, Spain:
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The first Bristol F2B arrived to the Army of Africa in 1922 after the spanish defeat in Annual in order to reinforce the aeronautic corps there. They operated from Melilla where they flew countless missions of bombing Rifian positions ,provinding close support to army troops and practising punishment bombing over civilian population. The Bristol F2B were the first airplanes to drop toxic gas bombs over the villagers of northern Morocco.

Dorand Ar.2, Rif Republic:
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Although not being a spanish airplane, i think it's worth being here because it was the only planed owned by the Republic of the Rif. As i mentioned before, the Rif Republic wanted to create their own air force but they hadn't any foreign suppliers and obviously they didn't have the capability of manufacturing their own ones.
The Rifeans managed to get this airplane thanks to the Franco/Algerian Trans-African air net sindicate. This was a failure project of creating an airline aiming to operate only in Algeria, however it went bankrupt and their airplanes were abandoned, some of them in the middle of the desert, that's how the Rifeans smuggled one of them into their territory, thanks mainly to Arab nomads.

It really worried the Spanish General Staff when they realized that the Rifeans managed to get an airplane, and they sent a force of 23 armed to the teeth with machine guns and bombs -weaponry that was not very common in the army during those years, to destroy the airplane. They succeded.

Junkers F.13 Spanish Red Cross:
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Pressured by both French and Spanish red cross committees to create an efficient system of evacuation of those wounded in the war, worsened by the situation of many war refugees seeking asylum in the international zone of Tangiers the government bought some, very technologically advanced for that time, Junkers F.13 to transport their high ranked wounded officials due to it's limited passenger capacity.

Farman F.68 Goliath, Spain:
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The spanish military aviation only owned three of these heavy bombers, which were bought to prepare the disembark of Alhucemas -sorry for the lack of wikipedia link but there isn't one in english-. They operated from Tablada aerodrome, in Seville at around 300km of their northern African objectives. They were used to bomb the villages with gas and to transport the Moroccan silverware adquired by the officials. (True story)

Breguet XIVB2, France/USA:
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It's not a spanish aircraft, but it played an important part in the history of Rif war. After 1924, when the spanish local government evacuated the city of Chaouen, 20.000 Rifean soldiers took the city. This, and the apparent ineffectiveness of the spanish army to contain the rebels made the french authorities in Morocco to fear an invasion of their territory by the local natives.
That's how the sultan of Morocco (the puppet governor of the french colonial manager) rented to France some of these airplanes, which had to be piloted by american veterans of Lafayette Squadron due to the lack of French pilots in the area, and also because the French foreign minister wanted to improve the relations between the USA and France, to bomb the city of Chaouen. However many american newspapers (e.g.the Pittsburg Post) questioned why the US should intervene in that foreign conflict and they didn't act again.

De Havilland Dh.60 Moth, Spain:
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The Moth served mainly as a trainer during the republican years of Spain, but in the late 20s it was a very new airplane which the eccentric owners of the Nelia Chocolate company bought to advertise their milk chocolate in 1928. A rather silly idea considering that most of the population was illiterate.

Breguet Br.19 & Br.26T, Spain:
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After the Rifean war the army bought these ones to replace their outdated bombers, namely the Br.XIV and the Aircos. However it was famous because the Republican aviator Hidalgo de Cisneros flew it in December 1930 in some kind of anti monarchical uprising. His action was condemned with the exile which only lasted four months because the 14th April 1931 the second republic was proclaimed.

The Br.26T, was bought after a study which came to the conclusion that the airplane would be an excellent mean of transporting quickly the war wounded soldiers.

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