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The Vickers F.B.5 (Fighting Biplane 5) (known as the "Gunbus") was a British two-seat pusher military biplane of the First World War.Armed with a single .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis gun operated by the observer in the front of the nacelle, it was the first aircraft purpose-built for air-to-air combat to see service, making it the world's first operational fighter aircraft.
At the start of the First World War, Vickers entered into a partnership with the Hart Engine Company to develop a 150 hp (110 kW) nine-cylinder radial engine designed by Hart. This engine was planned to power a number of new designs by Vickers, the first of which was a small single-engine pusher biplane fighter , the F.B.12 .
Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8. The F.E.8 was an early British "scout" aircraft, designed from the outset as a single-seat fighter.In the absence of a synchronization gear to provide a forward firing machine gun for a tractor scout such as the S.E.2, it was given a pusher layout.
At this stage it served as a fighter-reconnaissance aircraft – eventually about ⅔ of the F.E.2s were built as fighters (816) and ⅓ as bombers (395). [6] The F.E.2b and F.E.2d variants remained in day operations well into 1917, while the "b" continued as a standard night bomber until August 1918.
The Vickers F.B.16 was a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the First World War. It was originally designed to be powered by an experimental radial engine , development of which was abandoned. When re-engined with more powerful and reliable water-cooled V-8 engines , the F.B.16 demonstrated good performance, but only a few prototypes were ...
Cheesman, E.F. (ed.) Fighter Aircraft of the 1914–1918 War. Letchworth, UK: Harleyford, 1960; The Great War, television documentary by the BBC. Gray, Peter & Thetford, Owen German Aircraft of the First World War. London, Putnam, 1962. Guttman, Jon. Pusher Aces of World War 1: Volume 88 of Osprey Aircraft of the Aces: Volume 88 of Aircraft of ...
The first B.E.12 squadron, No. 19 did not reach France until 1 August 1916. It was followed by the only other squadron to fly the type in France, No. 21, on the 25th.As might have been expected, the new type had all the inherent stability of the B.E.2c and when pressed into service as a fighter proved quite useless, especially in the face of the new German Halberstadt and Albatros fighters ...
Lewis guns were used extensively on British and French aircraft during the First World War, as either an observer's or gunner's weapon or an additional weapon to the more common Vickers. The Lewis's popularity as an aircraft machine gun was partly due to its low weight, the fact that it was air-cooled and that it used self-contained 97-round ...