- Source: List of aircraft of the Spanish Republican Air Force
This is a list of aircraft used by the Spanish Republican Air Force during the Spanish Civil War.
Introduction
The Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1931 and very soon the republican authorities set up to reform an antiquated military structure that was a financial burden for the Spanish state following the Great Depression.
The Spanish Republican Air Force inherited a great number of airplanes from the monarchy, most of which had been used in the Spanish Campaigns in Northern Africa during general Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in the 1920s. Hostile to the republican reforms, and with many of its top echelon officers sympathizing with the far-right movements of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, part of the military elite staged a failed coup led by General Sanjurjo in 1934. However, the rebellion led by General Franco against the Spanish Republic in 1936 was more successful and marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
While more than half of the aircraft of the Spanish Republican Air Force remained on the loyalist side, most of the material was obsolete. In the summer of 1936 the beleaguered Spanish Republic found itself direly in need of modern weapons, but the governments of the United Kingdom and France quickly led a policy of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War. In defiance of the non-intervention pact some aircraft were sent to Republican Spain from France thanks to the efforts of personalities supporting the republican cause, but these consisted mostly in old material, including trainers, transport aircraft and planes without weapons that could not be used for attacks. Owing to the international blockade against the republic other planes of dubious value were acquired by the republican government through various sources, including Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium and Czechoslovakia which included a motley combination of obsolete aircraft, prototypes and almost discarded single models. Some of the shipments of aircraft did not make it to the Spanish fronts owing to the sinking of the merchant vessels transporting them or having been seized by the customs at the ports of origin. The most well-known Spanish Republican Air Force planes such as the 'Chato', 'Mosca', 'Natacha' and 'Katiuska' would come later in the same year and throughout 1937, when the USSR would decide to openly assist the Spanish Republic.
= Documents
=Information, both written and pictorial, regarding the identification of the aircraft of the Spanish Republican Air Force is found in a variety of sources. These include press reports of the time, official republican government documents, as well as documents and reports from the rebel side.
Since republican aerodromes were restricted military areas, relatively few photographs are available. Most are pictures of aircraft taken with air force personnel posing near them in an informal way, as well as photographs of crashed planes. Except for the primary aircraft, certain republican military plane types were never photographed, or if available, photographs have not been found, being only known from written documents or from pilot reports. This is often the case in the assorted —often obsolete and almost useless— aircraft of which only one or two units arrived in the first critical months at the beginning of the civil war. There are also aircraft which had been known only from written documents, such as the Spanish Republican Air Force Farman F.430, of which a picture has surfaced only recently.
Attack aircraft
Beechcraft Staggerwing
Breguet XIX
Gourdou-Leseurre GL.32
Gourdou-Leseurre GL-633
Grumman G-23, nicknamed 'Delfín'
Hispano-Suiza E-30
Potez 25
Vickers Vildebeest
Bombers
Bloch MB.200, photographic data are lacking
Bloch MB.210
Breguet 413,
Breguet 460 Vultur
Fokker F.IX
Hawker Spanish Osprey
Latecoere 28
Macchi M.18
Polikarpov R-5, also known as 'Rasante'
Polikarpov R-Z, nicknamed 'Natacha'
Potez 540
Tupolev SB, nicknamed 'Katiuska'
Vultee V-1
Fighters
AEKKEA-RAAB R-29
Avia BH-33
Bristol Bulldog (1 only for evaluation)
Blériot-SPAD S.51
Blériot-SPAD S.91
Boeing 281 (1 example only)
Dewoitine D.27
Dewoitine D.53
Dewoitine D.372
Dewoitine D.510
Fokker D.XXI
Hawker Hispano Fury
Letov Š-31
Letov Š-231
Letov Š-331 (1 example only)
Loire 46
Martinsyde F.4 Buzzard
Hispano-Nieuport Ni-52
Polikarpov I-15, nicknamed 'Chato'
Polikarpov I-16, nicknamed 'Mosca'
Patrol and liaison aircraft
Caudron C.600 Aiglon
de Havilland DH.83 Fox Moth
Dornier Do J Wal
Fokker C.X
Lockheed Model 9 Orion
Macchi M.18
Miles Falcon
Potez 58
RWD 9
Sikorsky S-38B, one unit was used in the Northern Front. Shot down by friendly fire
Vickers Vildebeest
Reconnaissance
Aero A.101
Bellanca 28-70
Caudron C.59
Koolhoven F.K.51
Loring R-3, may have seen active service, but data are lacking
Savoia-Marchetti SM.62
Seversky SEV-3
Spartan Executive
Trainers
Avia BH-33
Avro 504, obsolete by 1936, but some Aeronáutica Naval Avros may have been used as trainers
Avro 594
Avro 626
Avro 643 Cadet
BFW M.35
British Aircraft Swallow
Bücker Bü 133 Jungmeister
CASA III
Caudron C.270 Luciole
Comper Swift
de Havilland DH.60 Moth Major
de Havilland Tiger Moth
Farman F.354
Farman F.480 Alizé
Focke-Wulf Fw 56
General Aircraft Monospar ST-4
General Aircraft Monospar ST-12
González Gil-Pazó GP-1
González Gil-Pazó GP-4
Hanriot H.180
Hanriot H.437
Hispano-Suiza E-34
Loring E-2
Miles M.2 Hawk Trainer
Morane-Saulnier MS.181
Morane-Saulnier MS.230
Morane-Saulnier MS.341
Moreau JM.10 designer murdered while trying to sell single aircraft, use and fate unknown.
Romano R.82
Romano R.83
Romano R.92
S.F.C.A. Maillet 21
SAB-SEMA 12
Spartan Zeus, purchased but not delivered
Stampe et Vertongen RSV.32
Transport aircraft
Many of the aircraft used for transport and liaison by the Republican Air Force had been requisitioned from LAPE, the Spanish Republican airline.
Airspeed Envoy
Airspeed Viceroy
Avia 51
Blériot 111
Blériot-SPAD S.56
Breguet 26T
Breguet 470 Fulgur, from LAPE
British Aircraft Eagle
Caudron C.440 Goéland
Consolidated Fleetster
Couzinet 101
De Havilland DH-80 Puss Moth
De Havilland DH-84
De Havilland DH-89M
De Havilland DH-90
Douglas DC-1
Douglas DC-2
Farman F.190
Farman F 402
Farman F.430
Fokker F-VII.3m/M also used as a bomber in Asturias.
Fokker F.XVIII
Fokker F.XX
Ford Trimotor
General Aircraft ST-25, from LAPE
General Aviation GA-43, from LAPE
Junkers K 30
Koolhoven F.K.40
Latécoère 28
Lioré et Olivier 213
Lockheed Model 10 Electra
Lockheed Model 8 Sirius
Lockheed Vega
Northrop Delta, from LAPE
Northrop Gamma
Potez 560 from LAPE
Autogyros
Cierva C.19
Cierva C.30A
Captured aircraft
Planes of the Nationalist Spanish Air Force that fell into the hands of the Republicans.
Fiat CR.32, a number of these biplanes were captured and incorporated into the Republican Air Force. One of them was sent to the training facility at El Carmolí.
Heinkel He 111B-1, one unit of the Condor Legion captured after a forced landing in Cuenca ended up being sent to the Soviet Union.
Messerschmitt Bf 109B, another Condor Legion plane that was captured intact near Bujaraloz, Aragon, also ended up being sent to the USSR.
Savoia-Marchetti SM.81A, a bomber of the Aviazione Legionaria, was incorporated into the Republican Air Force.
See also
List of Interwar military aircraft
Spanish Republican Navy
Yankee Squadron
Further reading
Gerald Howson, Aircraft of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39, ISBN 9780851778426
References
External links
Media related to Aircraft of the Spanish Republican Air Force at Wikimedia Commons
ADAR Asociación de Aviadores de la República
La ayuda material a la República
Spanish Civil War: Republican Air Force
AC - Hilo sobre las aviadoras y los aviadores del socialismo
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