World War One Aviation: British Two-Seaters
The aircraft, originally designated the F.K.7, was designed by Dutch aircraft designer Frederick Koolhoven as a replacement for the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c and the Armstrong Whitworth F.K.3. It was a sturdier aircraft than the F.K.3, with a larger fuselage and wings and was powered by a 160 hp (110 kW) Beardmore water-cooled engine. The undercarriage used oleo shock absorbers. The undercarriage was unable to withstand rough use on the frontline airfields. The observer was equipped with a Scarff ring mounting for a 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis machine gun. No armament was initially provided for the pilot. The rudder featured a long, pointed horn-balance.
In service the F.K.8s (nicknamed the "Big Ack") proved to be effective and dependable. It proved to be fairly successful in performing reconnaissance, artillery spotting, ground-attack, contact-patrol and day and night bombing missions. It was easier to fly than the R.E.8 and was sturdier but its performance was even more mediocre and it shared the inherent stability that plagued many Royal Aircraft Factory types.
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A total of 1,650 were built and the type served alongside the R.E.8 until the end of the war, at which point 694 F.K.8s remained on RAF charge.
The F.K.8 served with several squadrons on operations in France, Macedonia, Palestine and for home defence, proving more popular in service than its better known contemporary the R.E.8. The first squadron was 35 Squadron. The F.K.8 was principally used for corps reconnaissance but was also used for light bombing, being capable of carrying up to six 40 lb (20 kg) phosphorus smoke bombs, up to four 65 lb (29 kg) bombs or two 112 lb (51 kg) bombs on underwing racks.
Two Victoria Crosses were won by pilots of F.K.8s; one by Second Lieutenant Alan Arnett McLeod of No. 2 Squadron RFC, on 27 March 1918 and the second by Captain Ferdinand Maurice Felix West of No. 8 Squadron RAF on August 10, 1918.
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The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 (Blériot Experimental) was a British single-engine two-seat biplane in service with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) during World War One. The B.E.2 has always had a very bad press, and had become an unpopular aircraft by 1916. From 1917 onwards, the B.E.2 was mostly withdrawn from the front line but continued in use for submarine spotting and as a trainer. Before this it had already been the first effective night fighter. About 3,500 were built, used as fighters, interceptors, light bombers, trainers and reconnaissance aircraft.
In August 1912, the Blériot Experimental 2 earned the highest marks in aircraft trials at Larkhill. During the competition, the two-seater broke the British altitude record, climbing to 10,560 feet. Equipped with a more powerful engine, the unarmed B.E.2a was introduced in 1913. A Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2a of No.2 Squadron RFC was the first aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps to arrive in France on 26 August 1914, after the start of the First World War. In 1915, when air combat began in earnest, squadrons equipped with the B.E.2c suffered heavy losses to more maneuverable enemy.
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The B.E.2 was designed by Geoffrey de Havilland as a development of the B.E.1, and first flew in February 1912 with de Havilland as the test pilot. On 12 August 1912 it set a British altitude record of 10,560 ft (3,219 m). It started production as a reconnaissance machine, and two years later formed part of the equipment of three squadrons - squadrons equipped with a single type of aeroplane were still to come. These were all sent to France shortly after the outbreak of war. The early B.E.2a and b aircraft were replaced during 1915 by the B.E.2c, so extensively modified as to be virtually a new type, based on research by Edward Teshmaker Busk to develop an inherently stable aeroplane. The c began to be superseded by the final version, the B.E.2e, nicknamed the "Quirk", in 1916.
Well into 1917 the last front-line B.E.2e was withdrawn, long after the type was obsolete. It continued in service throughout the war as a home defence fighter, in which role it was for a time a surprising success, and as a trainer.
The performance of the B.E.2 was inadequate to intercept the aeroplane raiders of 1917/18, and it was replaced by later types of night fighter, using techniques pioneered by the B.E.2c.
Some 3,500 B.E.2s were built by over 20 different manufacturers: an exact breakdown between the different models has never been produced, although the B.E.2c was almost certainly the most numerous.
The B.E.9 and the B.E.12 were variants designed to give the B.E.2 an effective forward-firing armament - the B.E.12 (a single seater) went into production and squadron service, but was not a great success.
By this time it had at least three serious weaknesses as a warplane. The first was that its small air-cooled inline motor made it seriously underpowered, and was unreliable even by the standards of the time. When bombs were to be carried or maximum endurance was required, the observer and his gun had to be left behind. Although the B.E.2 had a reasonable performance for 1914/15 it remained in service long after much more powerful aircraft had become available to the enemy.
The second weakness stemmed from this. As it was often flown as a single-seater, it was necessary to have the observer's cockpit over the center of gravity, in front of the pilot. In this awkward position, he was hampered by the struts and wires supporting the center section of the top wing , and at best had to shoot back over his pilot's head.
The third weakness is more controversial. In 1912 and following years there was a good deal of controversy about two competing aircraft design philosophies. One, typified by the Wright Brothers, said that an aeroplane should be inherently unstable, and that deviations from straight and level flight should be corrected by the pilot. Aircraft designed on this principle tended to be agile, but required constant vigilance and attention and a fair degree of skill from the pilot. The opposing philosophy strove towards an aircraft that, while it could be steered, largely kept itself steady in the air, and diverged from straight and level flight only when its pilot wanted it to. This tendency naturally worked against desired changes in flight attitude as well as involuntary ones, and reduced manoeuverability. Since the standard of pilot training was so poor in the RFC a stable aircraft had real advantages, but it did make it difficult to escape a more aerobatic enemy, even if pilot skills had permitted it. There is however a good deal of evidence in contemporary accounts that suggests that the B.E.2 was less stable and more manoeuverable than it was supposed to have been.
The essential vulnerability of the B.E.2 became plain in late 1915, with the advent of the first German fighters. This led the British press to dub it "Fokker Fodder", while German pilots nicknamed it kaltes Fleisch ("cold meat"). British ace Albert Ball summed it up as "a bloody awful aeroplane". Unable to cope with such a primitive fighter as the Fokker E.I, it was virtually helpless against the newer German fighters of 1916-17. The aircraft's poor performance against the Fokker Eindecker and the failure to improve the aircraft or replace it caused great controversy in England, with Noel Pemberton Billing attacking the B.E.2 and the Royal Aircraft Factory in the House of Commons on 21 March 1916, saying that RFC pilots in France were being "rather murdered than killed". This prompted the setting up of a judicial enquiry, which eventually cleared the factory.
As early as 1915 the B.E.2c had been used in attempts to intercept and destroy the German "Zeppelin" airship raiders. The "interceptor" version of the B.E.2c was flown as a single-seater with an auxiliary fuel tank on the center of gravity, in the position of the observer's seat in the reconnaissance version. After an initial lack of success while using darts and small incendiary bombs to attack airships from above, a Lewis gun was mounted to fire incendiary ammunition upwards, at an angle of 45°. The tactic proposed was to attack the airship from below. This proved very effective.
The first successful attack took place on the night of 3 September 1916, when a B.E.2c flown by Captain William Leefe Robinson downed the first German airship to be shot down over Britain, winning him a Victoria Cross and cash prizes totalling £ 3,500 that had been put up by a number of individuals for the first Zeppelin kill over the British Isles.
This was not an isolated victory: five more German airships were destroyed by Home Defence B.E.2c interceptors between October and December 1916.
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The Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2 was a two-seat pusher biplane that was operated as a day and night bomber and as a fighter aircraft by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. Along with the single-seat D.H.2 pusher biplane and the Nieuport 11, the F.E.2 was instrumental in ending the Fokker Scourge that had seen the German Air Service establish a measure of air superiority on the Western Front from the late summer of 1915 to the following spring.
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This early British two seater saw much action in the early years of the war, even though it was ungainly, and dangerous. As many early planes it is a push plane to avoid shooting off it's propellor blades when firing straight forward.
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The Sopwith 1½ Strutter was a British one or two-seat biplane multi-role aircraft of the First World War. It is significant as the first British-designed two seater tractor fighter, and the first British aircraft to enter service with a synchronised machine gun. It also saw widespread but rather undistinguished service with the French Aéronautique Militaire.
The first British fighter equipped with a fixed, forward firing, synchronized machine gun, the Sopwith 1½ Strutter was built in both one and two-seater models. In the latter version, the gas tank was dangerously positioned between the pilot and observer.
This design flaw prompted some airmen to joke that the designer of the aircraft must surely have been German. Not long after its introduction, the 1½ Strutter was replaced by the Sopwith Pup.
The versatile Bristol Fighter was a maneuverable, heavily armed two-seater biplane designed by Frank S. Barnwell. One of the most successful fighters of the war, it got off to a poor start during "Bloody April" when it was introduced to the Western Front by the inexperienced pilots and observers of 48 Squadron.
The Bristol Fighter was a rugged and dangerous adversery for any German plane that came in contact with it. Some were fitted with twin 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis Guns on a swivel mount, as well as a well protected 0.303 in (7.7 mm) forward-firing Vickers machine gun. This plane's career lasted many years after the conclusion of world war.
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In the mistaken belief that the Brisfit was structurally weak, pilots were instructed to avoid violent maneuvers during combat. Heeding this advice, the pilots of six Bristol F.2a Fighters encountered Manfred von Richthofen and his flight of five Albatros D.IIIs near Douai. In a fight that lasted almost 30 minutes, four of the Brisfits were shot down. The fight with Jasta 11 almost convinced the British to withdraw this aircraft from service.
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During World War I, the R.E.8 was the most widely used British two-seater biplane on the Western Front. A descendant of the R.E.7, it was initially developed for reconnaissance work but also saw service as a bomber and ground attack aircraft. Nicknamed "Harry Tate," it provided a stable platform for photographic missions but suffered from poor maneuverability, leaving it vulnerable to attack by enemy fighters.
The Royal Aircraft Factory Reconnaissance Experimental 8 (R.E.8) was a lumbering British two-seat biplane reconnaissance and bomber aircraft of the First World War. Intended as a replacement for the vulnerable B.E.2, the R.E.8 was much more difficult to fly, and was regarded with great suspicion at first in the Royal Flying Corps.
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Although eventually it gave reasonably satisfactory service, it was never an outstanding combat aircraft. In spite of this, and heavy combat losses,the R.E.8 served as the standard British reconnaissance and artillery spotting aircraft from mid-1917 to the end of the war, serving alongside the rather more popular Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8. Over 4,000 R.E.8s were eventually produced and they served in most theatres including Italy, Russia, Palestine and Mesopotamia, as well as the Western Front.
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The Vickers F.B.5 (Fighting Biplane 5) was the first aircraft specifically designed for air-to-air combat to see service as a fighter for the Royal Flying Corps, making it the world's first operational fighter aircraft.. With its engine mounted behind the cockpit, it the first pusher to enter service during World War I. Commonly referred to as the "Gunbus," it was armed with a moveable, forward firing 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis Gun operated by the observer in the front of the nacelle. Vulnerable to attack from the rear, the Gunbus was soon replaced by more advanced single-seat fighter aircraft. Lionel Rees scored more victories with this aircraft than any other ace. In 1915, he and his gunner downed six enemy planes while flying the F.B.5.
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Vickers began experimenting with the concept of an armed warplane designed to destroy other aircraft in 1912. The first resulting aircraft was the Type 18 "Destroyer" (Vickers E.F.B.1) which had been demonstrated in 1913. This aircraft was of the "Farman" pusher layout, to avoid the problem of firing through a tractor propeller, and was armed with a single belt-fed Maxim gun. The belt feed proved problematic for a flexible machine gun, and the weapon installed was changed to the lighter, handier, drum-fed 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis gun. The E.F.B.1 was the first in a line of Vickers' "Experimental Fighting Biplanes", of which the F.B.5 was the most famous - and the first to be built in quantity.
The F.B.5 first flew on 17 July 1914. It was powered by a single 100 hp (75 kW) Gnome Monosoupape 9-cylinder rotary engine driving a two-bladed propeller, and was of simple, clean, and conventional design compared with its predecessors. In total, 224 F.B.5s were produced, 119 in Britain by Vickers, 99 in France and 6 in Denmark.
The first F.B.5 was delivered to No. 6 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) at Netheravon in November 1914. On 25 December 1914, the first use of the F.B.5 in action took place, when a F.B.5 took off from Joyce Green airfield to engage a German Taube monoplane, hitting the Taube (and possibly causing its loss) with incendiary bullets from a carbine after the Lewis gun jammed.
The F.B.5 began to be seen on the Western Front when the first examples reached No.2 Squadron RFC on 5 February 1915. The type served in ones and twos with several other units before No. 11 Squadron RFC became the world's first fighter squadron when, fully equipped with the F.B.5, it deployed to Villers-Bretonneux, France on 25 July 1915. Second Lieutenant G.S.M. Insall of 11 Squadron won the Victoria Cross for an action on 7 November 1915 in which he destroyed a German aircraft while flying a Gunbus. No. 18 Squadron RFC, which deployed to France in November 1915, also operated the F.B.5 exclusively.
The F.B.5's performance proved to be inadequate for its intended role; although its forward-firing machine gun was a great advantage, the fighter did not have the speed or rate of climb to pursue its quarry. By the end of 1915, it was outclassed by the Fokker Eindecker. Some examples of the improved Vickers F.B.9 were sent to France, pending sufficient supplies of the Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b, but the active career of the Gunbus was soon over. The remaining examples were mostly used as trainers.
The Vickers company persisted with an active experimental program during the First World War period, including a line of single-seat pusher fighters, but the F.B.5 remained their only significant production aircraft until the Vickers Vimy bomber, which entered service too late to have an impact on the war.
Despite its moderate effectiveness, the Vickers F.B.5 did have a lasting legacy as German pilots continued to refer to British pusher aircraft as "Vickers-types". Many victories over D.H.2 or F.E.2b pushers were reported as destruction of a "Vickers".
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