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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.
All Quiet on the Western Front: Lewis Milestone: German infantry on the Western Front D N 1930 US A Man from Wyoming: Rowland V. Lee: D, R N 1930 US Inside the Lines: Roy Pomeroy: During WW1, the paths of an officer in the English secret service and a German spy converge in Gibraltar. D P 1930 US Anybody's War: Lloyd Corrigan
Lewis joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in early 1939 as a pilot officer and served in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II, rising to the rank of squadron leader. [18] [19] Bernard Shaw wrote of Lewis: "This prince of pilots has had a charmed life in every sense of the word. He is a thinker, a master of words ...
Its first flight was made on 15 October 1915 and the test pilot was satisfied with the aircraft's handling. The aircraft was then armed with a single Lewis gun, which was originally fitted on a movable mount within the nose of the nacelle, with the machine gun's breech almost at the pilot's feet. This proved awkward in practice, and in ...
Note the camera, and the (non-standard) fixed Lewis gun for the pilot. The arrangement was described by Frederick Libby, an American ace who served as an F.E.2b observer in 1916: When you stood up to shoot, all of you from the knees up was exposed to the elements. There was no belt to hold you.
The design was a development of the earlier Vickers F.B.12 prototypes; [2] and was a two-bay biplane with a high-mounted nacelle for the pilot and an initial armament of two .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis Guns. Behind this was a water-cooled 200 hp (150 kW) Hispano-Suiza engine driving the propeller.
The top scoring Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), and the top scoring non-German fighter pilot of all time. The top flying ace of the Finnish Air Force with 94 confirmed aerial combat victories [17] Pat Pattle United Kingdom: 4 August 1940– 20 April 1941 1936–1941 50 Hurricanes and Gladiators
The Vickers response, the F.B.11, designed by R. L. Howard-Flanders, was a large, single-bay, biplane of tractor layout. The pilot and one gunner sat in separate but closely spaced cockpits under the trailing edge of the upper wing, while a second gunner sat in a nacelle, or "fighting top", attached to, and extending forward of the upper wing.