WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.940 I want you to close your eyes for just a second. 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:07.120 Imagine the skies over Europe in early 1917. 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:09.939 You are thousands of feet in the air. The wind 00:00:09.939 --> 00:00:12.480 is just screaming past your face. And it's freezing. 00:00:12.939 --> 00:00:15.699 Oh, absolutely freezing. And the only thing standing 00:00:15.699 --> 00:00:18.500 between you and the ground is, well, some wood, 00:00:18.739 --> 00:00:21.120 a bit of fabric, and a whole lot of heavy gauge 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.140 piano wire. Not exactly a comforting thought. 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:27.280 Right. In this environment, the margins for survival 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:31.260 are incredibly thin. Being just slightly slower 00:00:31.260 --> 00:00:33.600 than your competition didn't mean you, you know, 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:36.119 lost a race. It meant certain death. Yeah, it's 00:00:36.119 --> 00:00:38.979 a terrifying and just entirely unique kind of 00:00:38.979 --> 00:00:41.320 pressure. I mean, aviation itself was barely 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:43.899 a teenager at this point. Yeah. And yet it was 00:00:43.899 --> 00:00:45.939 suddenly thrust into this high stakes crucible 00:00:45.939 --> 00:00:48.460 of the First World War. You literally have engineers 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:50.740 trying to figure out the basic physics of flight 00:00:50.740 --> 00:00:53.340 while simultaneously trying to weaponize it. 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:55.380 And that brings us to the subject of today's 00:00:55.380 --> 00:00:57.560 Deep Dive. We are looking at one of the most 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:00.859 famous, highly produced, and frankly most contradictory 00:01:00.859 --> 00:01:03.799 aircraft of the First World War, the SPAT -S 00:01:03.799 --> 00:01:07.469 III. The French biplane fighter itself. So our 00:01:07.469 --> 00:01:09.849 source material today is a really comprehensive 00:01:09.849 --> 00:01:12.849 Wikipedia article that details the entire life 00:01:12.849 --> 00:01:15.790 cycle of this incredible machine. And our mission 00:01:15.790 --> 00:01:18.310 for this deep dive is to unpack the engineering 00:01:18.310 --> 00:01:21.689 marvels, the terrifying flaws and the legendary 00:01:21.689 --> 00:01:24.030 pilots behind the Esper there. It's a lot to 00:01:24.030 --> 00:01:25.849 cover. It is. But we're going to give you an 00:01:25.849 --> 00:01:29.069 inside look at how sheer wartime desperation 00:01:29.069 --> 00:01:33.650 drives rapid, almost reckless technological innovation. 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:36.680 It really is the ultimate case study and compromises 00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:39.359 because the history of this aircraft is this 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:43.079 fascinating balancing act between raw world -beating 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:45.939 performance. Almost fatal unreliability. Exactly. 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:48.159 You don't get the legendary status of the SBAD 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:50.620 without accepting a massive amount of mechanical 00:01:50.620 --> 00:01:52.659 failure along the way. OK, let's unpack this. 00:01:52.700 --> 00:01:54.659 For you listening, think of this as your ultimate 00:01:54.659 --> 00:01:56.900 shortcut to understanding a massive piece of 00:01:56.900 --> 00:01:59.180 aviation history. So let's start with the catalyst 00:01:59.180 --> 00:02:01.620 for change. Why was the Essex built in the first 00:02:01.620 --> 00:02:03.379 place? Well, to understand that, we have to look 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:05.439 at its predecessor, right? Yeah, right. Because 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:08.740 by early 1917, the S -Fenis was a decent plane, 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:11.620 but it was getting entirely outclassed by the 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:14.439 new German fighters. Specifically the Albatross 00:02:14.439 --> 00:02:17.919 Dia III. Yes. Aerial supremacy was shifting really 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:20.819 fast toward the central powers. And the tactical 00:02:20.819 --> 00:02:23.340 situation in the air was deteriorating rapidly 00:02:23.340 --> 00:02:26.719 for the Allies. I mean, in aerial warfare, momentum 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:29.139 shifts can happen in a matter of weeks as new 00:02:29.139 --> 00:02:31.539 technology hits the front lines. Wow, weeks. 00:02:32.580 --> 00:02:35.599 Yeah. The S -Event had a 150 horsepower direct 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:39.330 drive Hispano -Suiza engine. And that was perfectly 00:02:39.330 --> 00:02:42.430 adequate for 1916. But 1917 is a different story. 00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:45.330 Very different. By 1917, the albatross was flying 00:02:45.330 --> 00:02:47.569 higher, it was diving faster, and it was just 00:02:47.569 --> 00:02:49.650 tearing the French quadrants apart. And the pilots 00:02:49.650 --> 00:02:51.930 on the front lines, they felt that shift immediately. 00:02:52.409 --> 00:02:54.949 There's this incredible, really desperate quote 00:02:54.949 --> 00:02:57.669 from the legendary French flying ace, Georges 00:02:57.669 --> 00:03:00.199 Guynemer. Oh yeah. He didn't hold back. He didn't 00:03:00.199 --> 00:03:02.500 at all. He went straight to the SADES designer, 00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:04.539 Louis Bechereau, and he did not mince words. 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.379 He lobbied him directly saying, quote, the 150 00:03:07.379 --> 00:03:09.719 SPS speedy is not a match for the Halberstrasse. 00:03:09.939 --> 00:03:13.439 More speed is needed. More speed is needed. It's 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:15.879 such a simple demand from a pilot who's just 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:18.139 trying to stay alive. Just make it faster. But 00:03:18.139 --> 00:03:20.750 fulfilling it. required an immense engineering 00:03:20.750 --> 00:03:23.629 leap from the designers back home. Because to 00:03:23.629 --> 00:03:26.150 get that speed, it wasn't just about tweaking 00:03:26.150 --> 00:03:28.669 the aerodynamics of the wood and canvas. It was 00:03:28.669 --> 00:03:31.469 about raw brute force power. So they needed a 00:03:31.469 --> 00:03:33.810 new engine. Exactly. Enter the engine designer, 00:03:34.030 --> 00:03:36.949 Mark Birkett. Right, and Burkitt's new engine 00:03:36.949 --> 00:03:39.990 design seems like a massive departure from the 00:03:39.990 --> 00:03:42.509 standard rotary engines that were kind of dominating 00:03:42.509 --> 00:03:45.870 early aviation. It was. He was developing a new, 00:03:46.189 --> 00:03:49.090 more powerful geared version of the Hispano -Suiza 00:03:49.090 --> 00:03:52.669 engine. the 8B geared V8. The geared part is 00:03:52.669 --> 00:03:54.710 key. For those trying to visualize the mechanics 00:03:54.710 --> 00:03:57.110 here, moving to a geared engine fundamentally 00:03:57.110 --> 00:04:00.189 changes how the plane operates. It does. So in 00:04:00.189 --> 00:04:01.969 a direct drive engine, which was the standard 00:04:01.969 --> 00:04:04.189 at the time, the propeller is bolted straight 00:04:04.189 --> 00:04:06.469 to the crankshaft. So it spins at the exact same 00:04:06.469 --> 00:04:08.990 speed as the engine. Right. If the engine is 00:04:08.990 --> 00:04:11.750 doing 2 ,000 revolutions per minute, the propeller 00:04:11.750 --> 00:04:15.370 is doing 2 ,000. But aerodynamically, a propeller 00:04:15.370 --> 00:04:18.569 loses efficiency if it spins too fast. The tips 00:04:18.569 --> 00:04:20.410 can actually break the sound barrier. Which you 00:04:20.410 --> 00:04:23.470 do not want. No, it ruins your thrust. So a geared 00:04:23.470 --> 00:04:26.569 engine solves this. It allows the engine itself 00:04:26.569 --> 00:04:29.970 to run at high, really efficient RPMs to generate 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:32.689 massive power, while a heavy set of reduction 00:04:32.689 --> 00:04:35.230 gears keeps the propeller spinning at a slower... 00:04:35.859 --> 00:04:38.279 aerodynamically optimal speed. But introducing 00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:41.420 a massive gearbox between a screaming V8 and 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:44.019 a heavy wooden propeller, I mean that introduces 00:04:44.019 --> 00:04:46.240 a staggering amount of mechanical complexity. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.040 Huge complexity. And Burkitt also pushed the 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:50.699 envelope with the metallurgy of the engine block 00:04:50.699 --> 00:04:53.720 itself. Yes, the monoblock. He introduced monoblock 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:55.980 aluminum cylinders that were furnished with screwed 00:04:55.980 --> 00:04:58.720 in steel liners. And that specific detail is 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:01.040 a game changer. Casting the cylinder block as 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:03.519 a single piece of aluminum, the monoblock, saved 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:05.220 a tremendous amount of weight. Because aluminum 00:05:05.220 --> 00:05:07.899 is so light. Exactly, and it dissipated heat 00:05:07.899 --> 00:05:11.339 much better than traditional cast iron. But aluminum 00:05:11.339 --> 00:05:14.480 is soft. The friction of the pistons would literally 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:17.160 destroy it in minutes. So that's where the steel 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:20.240 liners come in. Right. Birkitt engineered those 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.459 screwed -in steel liners for the pistons to run 00:05:22.459 --> 00:05:24.819 against, so it gave you the lightness of aluminum 00:05:24.819 --> 00:05:27.560 with the durability of steel. And Bechereau, 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:30.379 the aircraft designer, recognized the raw potential 00:05:30.379 --> 00:05:33.990 of this geared V8. And he chose it to power the 00:05:33.990 --> 00:05:36.589 next generation of SBF fighters. He did. And 00:05:36.589 --> 00:05:39.430 the urgency of this project is just mind blowing 00:05:39.430 --> 00:05:42.509 when you consider the stakes. I mean, this BATI 00:05:42.509 --> 00:05:45.370 SX -SIRTH takes its very first flight on April 00:05:45.370 --> 00:05:48.449 4th, 1917. Barely any time after the demand for 00:05:48.449 --> 00:05:50.709 more speed. Exactly. And they didn't put it through 00:05:50.709 --> 00:05:53.410 a rigorous multi -year testing phase. Production 00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:56.230 ramped up immediately. Within months, it was 00:05:56.230 --> 00:05:58.850 actively serving in the French Aéronautique Militaire. 00:05:59.029 --> 00:06:01.060 They simply didn't have the luxury of time. I 00:06:01.060 --> 00:06:03.699 mean, every day they spent testing was a day 00:06:03.699 --> 00:06:05.660 Allied pilots were being shot down by German 00:06:05.660 --> 00:06:07.420 Albatross fighters. Yeah, you just have to get 00:06:07.420 --> 00:06:10.000 it out there. As soon as the Essex III proved 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:12.959 it could fly and bring that new V8 power to bear, 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:15.259 it was pushed straight into mass production. 00:06:15.389 --> 00:06:18.430 So let's visualize the anatomy of this machine 00:06:18.430 --> 00:06:21.170 that they rushed to the front lines. If you look 00:06:21.170 --> 00:06:23.170 at photos of the Essex 3, you'll notice it looks 00:06:23.170 --> 00:06:26.470 like a heavy double bay biplane. Meaning it appears 00:06:26.470 --> 00:06:29.389 to have two sets of vertical struts separating 00:06:29.389 --> 00:06:32.100 the wings on each side. Right. But that's actually 00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:34.519 an engineering trick. It's a single bay aircraft. 00:06:34.699 --> 00:06:37.480 They just slapped these interposed wing struts 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:39.839 halfway along the wingspan. And what's fascinating 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:42.420 here is that this specific design choice was 00:06:42.420 --> 00:06:45.379 purely to solve an aerodynamic nightmare. The 00:06:45.379 --> 00:06:48.220 fluttering. Yes. In a high -speed dive or during 00:06:48.220 --> 00:06:50.920 really intense combat maneuvers, the primary 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:53.620 landing brace wires had a tendency to flutter 00:06:53.620 --> 00:06:56.560 and chafe. And at over 100 miles an hour, aerodynamic 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:59.000 flutter can literally vibrate a plane to pieces. 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:01.639 It will tear it apart. So those interposed struts 00:07:01.639 --> 00:07:04.120 were structural reinforcements put there specifically 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:06.980 to stop the wires from whipping. Wow. Yeah, it 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:08.720 gave the plane the appearance of a two -bay wing, 00:07:09.060 --> 00:07:11.800 but it was just a raw functional fix to keep 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:15.019 the wings from tearing off in combat. Just building 00:07:15.019 --> 00:07:17.480 those wings was becoming increasingly difficult 00:07:17.480 --> 00:07:20.779 due to wartime shortages. The upper wing of the 00:07:20.779 --> 00:07:23.279 ESSEC rest was supposed to be made in one continuous 00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:27.060 piece. But by 1917, the massive lengths of high 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:30.060 quality spruce wood required for those main wing 00:07:30.060 --> 00:07:33.420 spars were simply unavailable. The forests were 00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:35.959 stripped. So they had to adapt by using hollow 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:38.800 box section short spars and then connecting them 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:41.319 together with linen wrapped scarf joints. A scarf 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:43.699 joint is where you take two shorter pieces of 00:07:43.699 --> 00:07:46.019 wood, you cut them at long matching angles and 00:07:46.019 --> 00:07:48.500 glue them together. To maximize the surface area 00:07:48.500 --> 00:07:51.180 of the joint. Exactly. And wrapping it in linen 00:07:51.180 --> 00:07:54.259 just added a final layer of tensile strain. It's 00:07:54.259 --> 00:07:56.439 a brilliant workaround for supply chain failures. 00:07:56.720 --> 00:07:58.420 And of course, the entire airframe was covered 00:07:58.420 --> 00:08:00.860 in fabric treated with aircraft dope. Which is 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:03.680 such a critical process to early aviation. It's 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:06.339 essentially a highly flammable nitrocellulose 00:08:06.339 --> 00:08:08.540 lacquer that's painted directly onto the fabric. 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:11.040 Highly flammable, great for a combat zone. Right. 00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:14.720 But as it dries, it shrinks, pulling the canvas 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:17.220 drum tight over the wooden ribs and making it 00:08:17.220 --> 00:08:20.459 waterproof. And on the SX3, that tension from 00:08:20.459 --> 00:08:22.980 the doke gave the trailing edges of the lower 00:08:22.980 --> 00:08:26.300 wings a very distinct, almost scalloped batwing 00:08:26.300 --> 00:08:29.259 effect. It's very recognizable. But once you 00:08:29.259 --> 00:08:32.000 move past the wood and the doped fabric, the 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:34.919 internal systems of the SX were remarkably complex. 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:37.320 Yeah, let's talk about the plumbing. To achieve 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:39.879 a two -hour flight endurance, they couldn't rely 00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:42.340 on a simple gravity -fed gas tank. So what did 00:08:42.340 --> 00:08:45.620 they do? The SX3 housed several underbelly fuel 00:08:45.620 --> 00:08:48.570 tanks in the forward fuselage. An engine -driven 00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:51.049 pump would take that fuel and push it all the 00:08:51.049 --> 00:08:53.509 way up into the main service tank located in 00:08:53.509 --> 00:08:55.269 the center section of the upper wing. So you 00:08:55.269 --> 00:08:57.289 are essentially sitting inside a flying pump 00:08:57.289 --> 00:09:00.409 station. You have pressurized fuel, scalding 00:09:00.409 --> 00:09:02.990 water, and hot oil all being mechanically forced 00:09:02.990 --> 00:09:05.090 through lines right next to your head. All while 00:09:05.090 --> 00:09:07.679 taking enemy fire. It's insane! And there was 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:09.779 a header tank in the upper wing for the water, 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.559 which circulated down to a circular nose radiator. 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:14.840 And to regulate the engine temperatures in the 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:17.539 freezing cold of altitude, that nose radiator 00:09:17.539 --> 00:09:20.539 had vertical, Venetian -style blinds that the 00:09:20.539 --> 00:09:22.860 pilot could manually open and close. So they 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:25.580 have to fly the plane, manage the engine, and 00:09:25.580 --> 00:09:28.409 adjust blinds on the radiator. It really speaks 00:09:28.409 --> 00:09:30.809 to the cognitive load on these pilots. You aren't 00:09:30.809 --> 00:09:32.909 just flying, you are constantly managing the 00:09:32.909 --> 00:09:35.470 temperatures and pressures of a highly temperamental 00:09:35.470 --> 00:09:39.049 engine, adjusting radiator blinds, all while 00:09:39.049 --> 00:09:41.450 trying to spot enemy aircraft hiding in the sun. 00:09:41.629 --> 00:09:43.629 And when you finally spot that enemy, you need 00:09:43.629 --> 00:09:46.450 firepower. Absolutely. The Essingthirth was armed 00:09:46.450 --> 00:09:49.169 with two forward -mounted Vickers machine guns 00:09:49.169 --> 00:09:52.809 carrying 400 rounds per gun. This was double 00:09:52.809 --> 00:09:55.620 the firepower of the older SS. But the primary 00:09:55.620 --> 00:09:57.980 sources show that American squadrons flying this 00:09:57.980 --> 00:10:00.240 PD didn't always stick with the Vickers. Yeah, 00:10:00.299 --> 00:10:02.860 this is a fascinating detail. During the last 00:10:02.860 --> 00:10:04.860 months of the war, facing a shortage of Vickers 00:10:04.860 --> 00:10:07.799 guns, several American squadrons swapped them 00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:12.240 out for the Marlin Rockwell M1917 and M1918 aircraft 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:14.700 machine guns. By the end of the war, about half 00:10:14.700 --> 00:10:16.460 of the American Assecos had been converted to 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:18.799 the Marlins. And while it started as a supply 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:21.679 chain issue, it ended up providing a massive 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:24.399 tactical advantage. Because of the weight. Yes. 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:27.600 The Marlin guns were significantly lighter. They 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:29.980 saved about 15 pounds of weight right on the 00:10:29.980 --> 00:10:31.799 nose of the aircraft compared to the Vickers. 00:10:32.059 --> 00:10:34.720 Shedding 15 pounds of nose weight completely 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:37.320 alters the aircraft's center of gravity and wing 00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:39.860 loading. It does. I mean, in an era where engines 00:10:39.860 --> 00:10:43.100 are maxing out at 200 horsepower, that slight 00:10:43.100 --> 00:10:45.740 shift in the power to weight ratio dictates how 00:10:45.740 --> 00:10:47.480 fast you can climb and how tight you can turn. 00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:50.539 It could be the margin of survival. Every single 00:10:50.539 --> 00:10:53.580 ounce mattered. Yeah. And that really brings 00:10:53.580 --> 00:10:56.799 us to the core contradiction of the SP -SX3. 00:10:57.259 --> 00:11:00.039 It was a heavily armed, incredibly powerful, 00:11:00.379 --> 00:11:03.139 beautifully braced machine, but that performance 00:11:03.139 --> 00:11:05.750 was a double -edged sword. Let's start with the 00:11:05.750 --> 00:11:07.990 good edge of that sword. It was incredibly fast. 00:11:08.350 --> 00:11:10.710 At 3 ,000 meters, it could hit a maximum speed 00:11:10.710 --> 00:11:13.570 of 131 miles per hour. We're just flying back 00:11:13.570 --> 00:11:15.649 then. Oh, yeah. That made it faster than its 00:11:15.649 --> 00:11:17.889 main contemporaries, like the famous British 00:11:17.889 --> 00:11:20.490 Sopwith Camel or the terrifying German Fokker 00:11:20.490 --> 00:11:22.769 De Vieth. And it also had a phenomenal rate of 00:11:22.769 --> 00:11:25.529 climb. And structurally. Because of all that 00:11:25.529 --> 00:11:27.450 internal bracing and those interposed struts 00:11:27.450 --> 00:11:30.230 we talked about earlier, the S to D was highly 00:11:30.230 --> 00:11:32.769 renowned for its sheer strength in a steep dive. 00:11:33.049 --> 00:11:35.649 Which is a great escape tactic. Exactly. When 00:11:35.649 --> 00:11:38.269 a pilot needed to escape a bad situation quickly, 00:11:38.909 --> 00:11:41.549 the SFD could just point its nose down, open 00:11:41.549 --> 00:11:43.809 the throttle, and outrun almost anything in the 00:11:43.809 --> 00:11:46.370 sky without the wings carrying off. It was a 00:11:46.370 --> 00:11:49.409 heavy, fast machine that retained its energy 00:11:49.409 --> 00:11:52.210 beautifully in a dive. But then there's the bad 00:11:52.210 --> 00:11:54.289 news. There's always bad news. For all its speed 00:11:54.289 --> 00:11:57.389 in a straight line or a dive, the primary assessments 00:11:57.389 --> 00:12:01.289 note it flew like an absolute brick at low speeds. 00:12:02.090 --> 00:12:04.490 The maneuverability was relatively poor compared 00:12:04.490 --> 00:12:07.110 to other fighters. Yeah. And here is a terrifying 00:12:07.110 --> 00:12:09.850 detail for any pilot. Yeah. You had to land this 00:12:09.850 --> 00:12:11.909 thing with the power on. That is a critical flaw. 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:15.139 Contemporary planes like the Newport 27 had light 00:12:15.139 --> 00:12:16.899 enough wing loading that they could glide in 00:12:16.899 --> 00:12:18.779 and land with the power off. Just coast right 00:12:18.779 --> 00:12:22.220 in. Right. But the SPD, it was so heavy and so 00:12:22.220 --> 00:12:24.299 difficult to control at low speeds that if you 00:12:24.299 --> 00:12:26.259 cut the engine on approach, you were going to 00:12:26.259 --> 00:12:28.529 lose lift and drop out of the sky. just fall 00:12:28.529 --> 00:12:30.750 like a stone. Yes, you had to fly it all the 00:12:30.750 --> 00:12:33.289 way down to the girt managing the throttle until 00:12:33.289 --> 00:12:35.269 the wheels physically touch the grass. Wait, 00:12:35.409 --> 00:12:37.850 but flying it all the way down relies on your 00:12:37.850 --> 00:12:40.509 engine actually working. If you lose your engine 00:12:40.509 --> 00:12:43.490 in a dogfight, you can't just glide back to friendly 00:12:43.490 --> 00:12:46.690 lines. No, you can't. You are essentially piloting 00:12:46.690 --> 00:12:50.559 a heavy aerodynamic stone, which brings us to 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:53.259 the ugly side of the SX3. Right. If we connect 00:12:53.259 --> 00:12:55.899 this to the bigger picture, the rapid development 00:12:55.899 --> 00:12:58.620 of that geared Hispano -Suiza engine came with 00:12:58.620 --> 00:13:01.139 a massive cost. What about unreliability? It 00:13:01.139 --> 00:13:03.879 was notoriously unreliable. Those heavy reduction 00:13:03.879 --> 00:13:06.399 gears we talked about earlier, they vibrated 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:09.080 horribly. Tearing the engine apart. Exactly. 00:13:09.220 --> 00:13:12.360 The engine suffered from very poor lubrication 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:15.179 and the sheer mechanical stress of a V8 violently 00:13:15.179 --> 00:13:17.879 tearing at a gearbox just rip the engines apart 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:20.120 from the inside. The statistics from the sources 00:13:20.120 --> 00:13:23.659 are staggering. By November 1917, official reports 00:13:23.659 --> 00:13:26.480 claimed the plane was, quote, incapable of giving 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:28.639 dependable service. And it didn't get much better. 00:13:28.899 --> 00:13:32.250 Not at all. By April 1918, an official report 00:13:32.250 --> 00:13:35.350 stated that two -thirds of all the 200 horsepower 00:13:35.350 --> 00:13:38.549 SPAids were completely out of service at any 00:13:38.549 --> 00:13:41.269 one time due to engine problems. Two -thirds. 00:13:41.370 --> 00:13:44.570 Two -thirds. How does high command justify keeping 00:13:44.570 --> 00:13:48.269 a frontline fighter in production when 66 % of 00:13:48.269 --> 00:13:51.070 the fleet is grounded on any given day? It comes 00:13:51.070 --> 00:13:54.669 down to the grim mathematics of war. The military 00:13:54.669 --> 00:13:56.970 brass decided these issues were an acceptable 00:13:56.970 --> 00:13:59.769 price to pay. Yes, the mechanic were working 00:13:59.769 --> 00:14:01.610 around the clock just to keep a fraction of the 00:14:01.610 --> 00:14:03.490 planes in the air and yes engines were seizing 00:14:03.490 --> 00:14:06.610 mid -flight but when the engine actually worked 00:14:06.750 --> 00:14:09.789 The plane's speed and diving ability were so 00:14:09.789 --> 00:14:12.429 vastly superior to anything else that it was 00:14:12.429 --> 00:14:15.049 deemed irreplaceable. The performance ceiling 00:14:15.049 --> 00:14:17.570 justified the logistical nightmare. OK, here's 00:14:17.570 --> 00:14:19.669 where it gets really interesting. With those 00:14:19.669 --> 00:14:22.169 kinds of catastrophic failure rates, genuine 00:14:22.169 --> 00:14:24.289 paranoia starts to emerge on the ground. Oh, 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:26.389 for sure. When you look at the primary accounts 00:14:26.389 --> 00:14:28.529 from American observers, they fully believed 00:14:28.529 --> 00:14:30.990 a conspiracy was taking place. The engine hoarding 00:14:30.990 --> 00:14:34.049 conspiracy. Yes, they suspected that the French 00:14:34.049 --> 00:14:36.289 were purposefully giving the American spade, 00:14:36.330 --> 00:14:39.570 the 13 squadrons, the lower quality engines produced 00:14:39.570 --> 00:14:42.950 by their least favored subcontractors while hoarding 00:14:42.950 --> 00:14:45.389 all the reliable high quality engines for the 00:14:45.389 --> 00:14:47.929 French pilots. And whether that was a coordinated 00:14:47.929 --> 00:14:50.929 logistical strategy by the French or just the 00:14:50.929 --> 00:14:53.970 natural result of wartime paranoia over a genuinely 00:14:53.970 --> 00:14:57.379 flawed engine design. It highlights the severe 00:14:57.379 --> 00:14:59.779 tension these reliability issues caused among 00:14:59.779 --> 00:15:02.220 the allies. It builds a lot of resentment. You're 00:15:02.220 --> 00:15:05.179 asking young men to fly into combat in a machine 00:15:05.179 --> 00:15:07.580 that is statistically more likely to break down 00:15:07.580 --> 00:15:10.320 than it is to function properly. So despite the 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:12.799 violent vibrations, the terrible low speed handling, 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:15.379 the requirement to land with the power on and 00:15:15.379 --> 00:15:18.639 the constant engine failures, the S -Paid SP3 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:21.279 somehow becomes an absolute legend of the sky. 00:15:21.320 --> 00:15:23.899 It really does. The production numbers are staggering. 00:15:24.379 --> 00:15:27.539 Ultimately, 8 ,472 of these fighters were built. 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:29.500 It became the absolute backbone of the Allied 00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:32.059 fighter force. It equipped virtually every French 00:15:32.059 --> 00:15:34.580 fighter squadron. That's 74 escadrilles. And 00:15:34.580 --> 00:15:36.820 the Americans relied on it heavily, too. Very 00:15:36.820 --> 00:15:39.759 heavily. By the time of the armistice, the Essex 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:44.120 III equipped 15 out of the 16 operational U .S. 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:47.330 Army Air Service Pursuit squadrons. And its reach 00:15:47.330 --> 00:15:51.110 went far beyond France and the U .S. Italy acquired 00:15:51.110 --> 00:15:53.350 them for their squadrons. Belgium operated them. 00:15:53.789 --> 00:15:56.110 Even the British Royal Flying Corps, who had 00:15:56.110 --> 00:15:58.889 their own robust aviation industry, used them 00:15:58.889 --> 00:16:00.950 as an interim fighter while they waited for their 00:16:00.950 --> 00:16:03.529 own newer planes to be delivered. Right. And 00:16:03.529 --> 00:16:05.690 with that wide of a distribution, it naturally 00:16:05.690 --> 00:16:08.389 became the aircraft of choice for the most famous 00:16:08.389 --> 00:16:11.190 aviators in the world. The roster of pilots who 00:16:11.190 --> 00:16:13.629 flew the STEC -3 is essentially the hall of fame 00:16:13.629 --> 00:16:16.399 of the First World War. Who do we have? Well, 00:16:16.779 --> 00:16:18.820 you have Francis Rene Fonk, who is the highest 00:16:18.820 --> 00:16:21.980 -scoring allied ace with 75 victories. Incredible. 00:16:22.100 --> 00:16:24.500 You have Georges Gynemer, the pilot who demanded 00:16:24.500 --> 00:16:26.399 more speed from the designers in the first place. 00:16:26.620 --> 00:16:29.960 He scored 54 victories. Charles Nengesser with 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:34.259 45. A legend. Italy's leading ace Francesco Baracca 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:37.179 scored 34 victories in a sex bad. And of course, 00:16:37.299 --> 00:16:40.559 the Americans, Eddie Rickenbacker with 26 victories 00:16:40.559 --> 00:16:43.419 and Frank Luke, the balloon buster with 18. This 00:16:43.419 --> 00:16:45.320 raises an important question, though. How do 00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:47.679 we reconcile the fact that this plane was universally 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:50.740 criticized for poor maneuverability with the 00:16:50.740 --> 00:16:53.360 fact that these legendary aces were racking up 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:56.580 dozens of kills against highly maneuverable German 00:16:56.580 --> 00:16:59.129 fighters? Right. If it flew like a brick, how 00:16:59.129 --> 00:17:02.210 did it win dogfights? There's a fantastic first 00:17:02.210 --> 00:17:04.410 -hand account from a British pilot named Cecil 00:17:04.410 --> 00:17:07.390 Lewis. It's detailed in his memoir Sagittarius 00:17:07.390 --> 00:17:10.190 Rising, and it completely dissects this paradox. 00:17:10.410 --> 00:17:12.809 Oh, I love this story. Lewis was flying a British 00:17:12.809 --> 00:17:15.750 SE -5, and he actually ended up in an aerial 00:17:15.750 --> 00:17:18.049 competition with Jordan's Gynemer, who was flying 00:17:18.049 --> 00:17:20.750 a spado. And the context of this encounter is 00:17:20.750 --> 00:17:24.740 crucial. The SE5 and the SPCE actually used the 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:27.180 same core engine series, so this was a true, 00:17:27.180 --> 00:17:30.059 pure test of the airframes and the pilots. Right. 00:17:30.259 --> 00:17:32.319 So Lewis writes that their top speeds were almost 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:34.680 identical, but Gynemer's high compression SPD 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:37.319 climbed far quicker. It had that vertical advantage. 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:40.079 Exactly. But the real revelation comes after 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:42.339 the race, when they decided to have a mock dogfight 00:17:42.339 --> 00:17:45.200 over the aerodrome. Lewis, flying the highly 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:48.359 respected SE5, writes, quote, again, I was badly 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:51.440 worsted. Gainemeyer was all over me. In the SB8. 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:54.980 In the Seppi. In his hands, the SPAD was a marvel 00:17:54.980 --> 00:17:57.359 of flexibility. In the first minute, I should 00:17:57.359 --> 00:18:00.019 have been shot down a dozen times. A marvel of 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:02.880 flexibility. Yeah. That directly contradicts 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:05.200 every official assessment that the SB8 handled 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:07.500 like a brick. Completely contradicts it. But 00:18:07.500 --> 00:18:10.140 when you analyze the physics of early dogfighting, 00:18:10.500 --> 00:18:13.349 the contradiction vanishes. Because the secret 00:18:13.349 --> 00:18:15.650 to the CESB's success wasn't that it could out 00:18:15.650 --> 00:18:17.970 turn an opponent in a tight horizontal circle. 00:18:18.750 --> 00:18:21.730 The secret was the aircraft's incredible natural 00:18:21.730 --> 00:18:24.329 stability combined with its energy retention. 00:18:24.769 --> 00:18:26.309 Meaning it didn't bounce around when you tried 00:18:26.309 --> 00:18:28.390 to line up a shot. It wasn't a turn fighter. 00:18:28.549 --> 00:18:31.329 It was an energy fighter. Precisely. In aerial 00:18:31.329 --> 00:18:33.589 combat, you need a steady gun platform to actually 00:18:33.589 --> 00:18:36.740 hit a moving target. Highly maneuverable planes 00:18:36.740 --> 00:18:39.240 are often twitchy and unstable, which makes it 00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:41.539 really hard to aim. That makes sense. The SP 00:18:41.539 --> 00:18:44.640 -80 provided rock -solid stability. Furthermore, 00:18:45.019 --> 00:18:47.180 aces like Gynemerge didn't fight in horizontal 00:18:47.180 --> 00:18:49.579 circles, they fought in the vertical. Using the 00:18:49.579 --> 00:18:53.000 climb rate. Yes. They used the SPD's massive 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:56.019 climb rate to get above the enemy, used its incredible 00:18:56.019 --> 00:18:59.220 diving speed to slash down fire from a perfectly 00:18:59.220 --> 00:19:01.480 stable platform, and then used that momentum 00:19:01.480 --> 00:19:04.339 to zoom right back up out of range. Boom and 00:19:04.339 --> 00:19:07.539 zoom. It's the classic story of a brutal instrument 00:19:07.539 --> 00:19:10.440 requiring an absolute virtuoso to unlock its 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:13.059 potential. Very well said. In the hands of a 00:19:13.059 --> 00:19:15.519 rookie, the heavy controls and poor low -speed 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:18.559 handling were a fatal liability. But in the hands 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:21.279 of an ace who intimately understood energy management, 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:24.220 speed, and diving tactics, it was absolutely 00:19:24.220 --> 00:19:26.680 lethal. The Sped Fadies Day was a brute force 00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:30.019 solution to a highly complex problem. It wasn't 00:19:30.019 --> 00:19:32.819 elegant. It shook its own engines apart and it 00:19:32.819 --> 00:19:35.000 demanded flawless technique from its pilots just 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:37.119 to land it safely. Just to not crash on your 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:39.779 own runway. Exactly. But it gave the Allies the 00:19:39.779 --> 00:19:43.400 one thing they desperately needed in 1917. Uncontested 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:45.339 overwhelming speed. So what does this all mean 00:19:45.339 --> 00:19:47.500 for us looking back a century later? It means 00:19:47.500 --> 00:19:50.480 the S -Day was the exact imperfect tool required 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:52.460 to win control of the skies in the First World 00:19:52.460 --> 00:19:55.970 War. A necessary evil in a way. Yeah. And for 00:19:55.970 --> 00:19:57.849 you listening, if you ever want to stand next 00:19:57.849 --> 00:20:00.670 to one of these flying muscle cars and see that 00:20:00.670 --> 00:20:02.849 single bay optical illusion for yourself, there 00:20:02.849 --> 00:20:05.369 are actually a few surviving models out there. 00:20:05.490 --> 00:20:07.529 You can still see them. You can. You can find 00:20:07.529 --> 00:20:09.970 them on display at the Royal Armed Forces Museum 00:20:09.970 --> 00:20:12.569 in Brussels, the Musée de l 'Air de la Space 00:20:12.569 --> 00:20:16.420 in Paris. the Smithsonian in Washington, D .C., 00:20:16.420 --> 00:20:18.940 the National Museum of the U .S. Air Force in 00:20:18.940 --> 00:20:22.319 Ohio, and there's even one hanging right in the 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:24.579 terminal at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International 00:20:24.579 --> 00:20:28.019 Airport. Which is honestly a minor miracle that 00:20:28.019 --> 00:20:30.519 any of them survived, given that they were built 00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:33.619 out of wood. hulls, bars, and doped fabric over 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:36.339 a century ago. Truly. But before we wrap up today, 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:38.500 I want to leave you with one final lingering 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:41.140 detail from the historical record. We mentioned 00:20:41.140 --> 00:20:43.799 that over 8 ,400 of these were built during the 00:20:43.799 --> 00:20:46.619 war. Well, when the armistice was finally signed 00:20:46.619 --> 00:20:49.920 in November 1918, the massive industrial war 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:52.200 machine didn't just instantly halt. No, it had 00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:54.599 momentum. A lot of momentum. In fact, orders 00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:57.640 for 10 ,000 more cess back lines were instantly 00:20:57.640 --> 00:21:00.970 canceled. 10 ,000. And the thousands of surviving 00:21:00.970 --> 00:21:03.750 planes already in the field. They were suddenly 00:21:03.750 --> 00:21:06.589 declared surplus. They were sold off globally 00:21:06.589 --> 00:21:09.430 to civilian and military buyers alike for pennies 00:21:09.430 --> 00:21:12.069 on the dollar. That sudden violent shift from 00:21:12.069 --> 00:21:15.069 a total wartime economy to a peacetime civilian 00:21:15.069 --> 00:21:18.529 market is incredibly jarring, especially for 00:21:18.529 --> 00:21:21.150 a technology that was still so deeply experimental. 00:21:21.410 --> 00:21:24.250 So here is a thought for you to chew on. Imagine 00:21:24.250 --> 00:21:27.309 the chaotic impact on global aviation. Yeah. 00:21:27.420 --> 00:21:30.220 What happens to the trajectory of aviation technology 00:21:30.220 --> 00:21:32.319 and the civilian mechanics who suddenly have 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:35.140 to figure out how to fix them when thousands 00:21:35.140 --> 00:21:38.920 of highly complex, incredibly fast and notoriously 00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:41.900 unreliable weapons of war suddenly flood the 00:21:41.900 --> 00:21:44.000 peacetime market overnight? You take the bleeding 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:46.380 edge of military technology with all its fatal 00:21:46.380 --> 00:21:48.420 flaws and hand it to the general public. That 00:21:48.420 --> 00:21:51.259 is a fascinating, messy transition. It sure is. 00:21:51.380 --> 00:21:53.480 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:55.859 dive into the spa to SEC 30. We hope you keep 00:21:55.859 --> 00:21:58.240 exploring. Keep looking up and keep questioning 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:00.500 the incredible messy history behind the machines 00:22:00.500 --> 00:22:02.759 we just take for granted today. Catch you next 00:22:02.759 --> 00:22:02.960 time.