Deperdussin TT

The Deperdussin TT was a French monoplane built by Société Pour les Appareils Deperdussin, later to become S.P.A.D. Introduced in 1912, the type was one widely used by the French Air Force (then Aviation Militaire) before the First World War. In February 1914, an experiment was made to install a machine gun on the aircraft, but this did not see service.

In total, in 1913-14 in France, about 100 copies of the Deperdussin TT were built . The plane had good flight characteristics for its time. It clearly shows the influence of single-seat racing “Deperdussen”, which established in 1912 several world speed records.

By the beginning of the war, two squadrons of the French Air Force were armed with the Deperdussens. In the spring of 1914, Colt or Madsen machine guns were installed on some machines on peculiar high carriages for firing forward over the propeller. For firing, gunners had to crawl out of the cockpit into the fuselage. Such “acrobatics” did not arouse enthusiasm among the pilots, and nothing is known about the real combat use of these installations. Later, several more successful shooting points appeared on several Russian “Deperdussens”, for maintenance of which it was no longer necessary to leave the cabin.

Several aircraft were accepted by British naval aviation. The aircraft was used as a scout on the western front until about the end of 1914, and then – in training units.