WW1: Did the SPAD 13 have shoulder belts?

in article M__Jb.23946$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net, RC Boater at snipped-for-privacy@delete.earthlink.net wrote on 1/4/04 2:48 PM:

I can't answer for certain but I suspect there were no shoulder belts. Upper body restraints are usually pretty late.

MB

Hey Milt, I seem to remember an Errol Flynn movie from the late 30s that took place in the First War. When he landed his plane, he threw (literally) his belt back over the rear decking. I think that they showed him pulling it across his shoulder as well. But, I think that the plane was a Camel. Sorry for muddying up the waters.

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m17.aol.com, The Old Timer at snipped-for-privacy@aol.comspamless wrote on 1/4/04 4:21 PM:

I believe I saw that movie. (probably in a theater) but like I say, I can't be certain. I bet someone in the WWI group will answer the question.

MB

O.K. I have dug out the Windsock datafiles on the SPAD S.7 and S.13. The photos in the S.7 pub are inconclusive as far as French SPAD 7's are concerned. However, there is a photo of a Royal Flying Corps SPAD S.7 that clearly shows the belt hanging over the rim of the cockpit. I am pretty sure that this would have to be a shoulder belt. In the SPAD 13 pub, there are several photos of both French, British and American SPAD's that appear to have a shoulder type belt hanging over the cockpit rim. As a further point: The Royal Flying Corps aircraft would have been fitted with the R.A.F.'S standard Sutton Flying Harness belt system while the French (and probably American) would have had a simpler system.

Bill Shuey

Nieuport 28! Movie's title was "Dawn Patrol", 1939. Errol Flynn, David Niven and Basil Rathbone. Was actually a re-make of a British movie of the same name from 1932 that featured some of the most awful over acting you will ever see on a screen.

Bill Shuey

Lap belts only. Shoulder belts were a thirties invention.