W.Green, G.Swanborough The Complete Book of Fighters

SPAD SG.1 France

   Louis Bechereau’s first attempt to produce a single-seat fighter was apparently the Type G which had the gunner's nacelle ahead of the propeller of the SA series replaced by a similarly-shaped nacelle containing remotely-controlled armament. A concept prototype was provided by modifying the original SA.1 prototype with a revised forward nacelle from which four dummy machine gun barrels protruded. It is not known whether this aircraft was ever fully armed and flown - if so it would have a strong claim to having been the world's first multi-gun fighter with fixed weapons. The SG.1 - a designation which has still to be authenticated - was a single-seat fighter presumably based on the modified SA.1 prototype, but with a single fixed heavy machine gun in the forward nacelle and which, according to French sources, emerged in April 1916 with a 110 hp Le Rhone rotary engine. What must have been the SG.1 was mentioned in a Royal Flying Corps report on French aircraft of April 1916, which stated that the fighter was armed with a "heavy Hotchkiss mitrailleuse d'infanterie with a belt of 1,000 rounds carried in a streamlined basket in front of the propeller". The following data were provided by the report, the wing area quoted suggesting that the SG.1 was somewhat smaller than the SA types. No photograph of the SG.1 has apparently survived.

Max speed, 100 mph (161 km/h) at 6,560 ft (2 000 m), 96 mph (154 km/h) at 9,840 ft (3 000 m).
Time to 6,560 ft (2 000 m), 7.25 min, to 9,840 ft (3 000 m), 11.5 min.
Wing area, 200 sqft (18,58 m2).