The number five >

The brown colour had disapeared on the #5 of spa 77. So, there is a 2nd version of this skinpack to DL. Sorry guys !

The next one will be Paul d'Argueeff's spad.
He was a russian who fought in the french infantry during the 1st Marne battle, then fought in the russian front in the russian aviation. He went back in France after the russian revolution and was a pilot of the Spa 124 Jeanne d'Arc.

Pavel Vladimirovich Argueiev was born in Yalta (Russia) on March 1, 1887. He enters the military academy of Odessa where he leaves lieutenant and is sent to Paris where he is when the war breaks out.
He received the command of a company in November following being promoted to the rank of captain and will be distinguished during the attack on Vauquois which will be worth a quote to the order of the army dated December 28, 1914. Several times wounded in battle, he was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Legion of Honor on May 2, 1915, and, recognized as unfit for infantry combat following his wounds, volunteered to join the aeronautical service on July 22 July 1915.
He then leaves France for Russia where he will join the 19th Korpusnoi Aviatsionniy Otryad (KAO) on October 20, 1916, led by Russian aces Alexander Kozakov, and will reveal himself as a particularly talented hunter since will get 6 aerial victories between the months of January and June 1917.
But the Bolshevik seizure of power in December 1917 made his position difficult as a former officer of the Tsarist army. He then decided to leave the country and managed to reach France on April 4, 1918, where he was assigned to the squadron SPA 124 integrated GC 21 where he becomes a staff officer.
( excerpt from this article > http://www.as14-18.net/Argueeff-d )

The next one will be Dubonnet 's spad.

Andr? Dubonnet was born in Paris on June 28, 1897, in a particularly fortunate environment since his father Marius is a rich merchant heir to the famous brand of aperitif Dubonnet, founded by his grandfather. This brand was very famous in France, especially because of its advertising campaigns.


Extracts from the article by David M?chin on his website: http://www.as14-18.net/

He joined the army at 17 in 1915 and became a pilot in 1917. The assignment he receives, the squadron 561 of Venice, does not suit him because the fighting is rather rare. He then took advantage of his first permission in France to play his father's relations in the political world to get his transfer in a fighter squadron of the French front and is satisfied beyond his expectations because he joined September 17 1917 the prestigious SPA 3 squadron, just after the death of Guynemer.

He made a few missions and found himself promoted to the rank of sergeant in October before being fired from the air force the following month: taking advantage of the bad weather which reduced the air activity, he granted himself a permission to go party in the capital ... Common and tolerated practice among pilots, but provided to remain discreet and / or not to cross a superior. This is precisely what happens to the sergeant Andr? Dubonnet: probably for having made the party too much, he must be picked up by a gendarmerie patrol and escorted to his squadron where his superior, the captain Raymond, degrades him immediately and the returns to his original weapon. Officially returned to the rank of brigadier on December 11, 1917, he was returned on the 16th to the 41st regiment of artillery and found the trench road during the winter.
His regiment finds itself exposed in the front line at the time of the great spring offensive launched by the German troops on the Somme, where the British troops who hold the sector are pulverized. As his artillery unit retreats from Guisard to Noyon, Brigadier Dubonnet distinguishes himself by saving two pieces of artillery. Decorated and regaining his rank of sergeant on April 3, 1918, he took advantage of the recognition of his colonel to negotiate his return to aviation, which is done on April 25, 1918.

He is on this date back to squadron Storks where the atmosphere is probably frosty with his squadron leader, Captain Raymond. But the ice will melt quickly with the first air success that will bring back Dubonnet, which are not a luxury for the squadron SPA 3 who lost his biggest aces. In the company of Sergeant Franck Bayli?s, American pilot of the squadron, he will win three first aerial victories in May 1918 at the helm of his SPAD XIII, which he decorates with the cat of aperitifs Dubonnet.



WIP

Top notch work as always mate

Thank you, it's a great pleasure to skin this old planes.

Still wip but less than before


There is more to say about Dubonnet. Thus, during the 1930s, he will devote himself to the study and the realization of prototypes of avant-garde cars, and especially this one, the Hispano-Suiza Dubonnet Xenia.

#3 flown by Tadija Sondermajer (Serbia) as a wingman.