The Bleriot-SPAD S.33 was a small French
airliner developed soon after
World War I. The aircraft was a
biplane of conventional configuration whose design owed much to the Blériot company's contemporary
fighter designs such as the
S.20. Four passengers could be accommodated in an enclosed cabin within the
monocoquefuselage, and a fifth passenger could ride in the open
cockpit beside the pilot. A great success, the S.33 dominated its field throughout the 1920s, initially on
CMA's Paris-London route, and later on continental routes serviced by
Franco-Roumaine.
One interesting development was a sole example converted by
CIDNA to act as a blind-flying trainer. A set of controls was installed inside the passenger cabin, the windows of which had been blacked out.
Variants
S.33
Single-engined passenger transport aircraft, powered by a 260 hp (190 kW)
Salmson CM.9 radial piston engine. 41 aircraft built.
A single S.33 temporarily re-engined in 1925, fitted with a 275 hp (205 kW)
Lorraine 7M Mizar engine.
S.50
Luxury version with passenger cabin enlarged to six seats, fitted with a 300 hp (220 kW)
Hispano-Suiza 8Fb engine. Three were converted from S.33s, plus two all-new aircraft.
Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions. p. 163.
World Aircraft Information Files. London: Bright Star Publishing. pp. File 890 Sheet 42.
Warner, Edward P. (May 2008). "Les avions de ligne au banc d'essai en 1921" [Airlines on the Test Bench in 1921]. Le Fana de l'Aviation (in French) (462): 44–55.
ISSN0757-4169.