The Sopwith Pup was a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It entered service with the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps in the autumn of 1916. With pleasant flying characteristics and good manoeuvrability, the aircraft proved very successful. The Pup was eventually outclassed by newer German fighters, but it was not completely replaced on the Western Front until the end of 1917. Remaining Pups were relegated to Home Defence and training units. The Pup's docile flying characteristics also made it ideal for use in aircraft carrier deck landing and takeoff experiments and training.
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 was a British single-engine tractor two-seat biplane designed and developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. Most production aircraft were constructed under contract by various private companies, both established aircraft manufacturers and firms that had not previously built aircraft. Around 3,500 were manufactured in all.
The Sopwith Tabloid and Sopwith Schneider (floatplane) were British biplanes, originally designed as sports aircraft and later adapted for military use. They were among the first successful types to be built by the Sopwith Aviation Company. The "Tabloid", so named because of its small size, caused a sensation when it made its first public appearance.
The Vickers F.B.5 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.
The Boxkite was the first aircraft produced by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company. A pusher biplane based on the successful Farman III, it was one of the first aircraft types to be built in quantity. As the type was used by Bristol for instruction purposes at their flying schools at Larkhill and Brooklands many early British aviators learned to fly in a Boxkite. Four were purchased in 1911 by the War Office and examples were sold to Russia and Australia. It continued to be used for training purposes until after the outbreak of the First World War.
The Bristol Scout was a single-seat rotary-engined biplane originally designed as a racing aircraft. Like similar fast, light aircraft of the period it was used by the RNAS and the RFC as a "scout", or fast reconnaissance type. It was one of the first single-seaters to be used as a fighter aircraft, although it was not possible to fit it with an effective forward-firing armament until the first British-designed gun synchronizers became available later in 1916, by which time the Scout was obsolescent. Single-seat fighters continued to be called "scouts" in British usage into the early 1920s.
The Vickers F.B.19 was a British single-seat fighting scout of the First World War, developed from the Barnwell Bullet prototype, and sometimes known as the Vickers Bullet. It served with the Royal Flying Corps and the Imperial Russian Air Service, which subsequently led to the Red Air Force adopting it during the Russian Civil War.
The Avro Type E, Type 500, and Type 502 made up a family of early British military aircraft, regarded by Alliott Verdon Roe as his firm's first truly successful design. It was a forerunner of the Avro 504, one of the outstanding aircraft of the First World War.
The Farman HF.20 and its derivatives were a family of reconnaissance aircraft produced in France shortly before and during the First World War. It was a refined version of the Farman MF.11 "Shorthorn" that did away with the type's distinctive landing skids, and incorporated design features from Henri Farman's designs. It entered service with the French, Belgian and Serbian armies in 1913, and with the British RFC and RNAS shortly after the outbreak of war. The type was also licence-built in the UK by Airco and Grahame-White.
The Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.5 was a British two-seat reconnaissance and artillery observation biplane designed and built by the Royal Aircraft Factory for the Royal Flying Corps.
The Avro 527 was the last Avro two-seat fighter derivative of the basic 504 design. It was built early in 1916 for trial by the Royal Flying Corps, with the features of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) Avro 504G but with a much more powerful engine; it did not reach production.
The Sopwith Three-seater was a British aircraft designed and built prior to the start of the First World War. One of the first aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company, it was operated by both the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), being used briefly over Belgium by the RNAS following the start of the War.
The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.4 was a single-engined, single seat biplane designed and built at the Royal Aircraft Factory just prior to the start of the First World War. Intended to be as fast as possible, it recorded a speed of 135 mph (217 km/h), which made it the fastest aircraft in the world in 1914, but no production followed and it was soon written off in a crash.
The Short S.41 was a British single-engined biplane built for the Royal Navy in 1912. Capable of being operated either on wheels or floats, it was successful enough for a further two similar aircraft to be built, with the type remaining in use until the early years of the First World War.
The Short S.45 — also known as the Short T.5 after its naval serial number — was a training biplane built for Britain's Royal Navy by Short Brothers in 1912. It was the forerunner of another three identical aircraft delivered to the Royal Navy and Royal Flying Corps during 1912 and 1913. The Royal Naval Air Service was still operating the type when World War I broke out in 1914.
The Dunne D.8 of 1912 was a tailless swept wing biplane, designed by J. W. Dunne to have inherent stability. One example was supplied to RAE Farnborough. License-built Burgess-Dunne models were used by the US Signal Corps and United States Navy and the short-lived Canadian Aviation Corps. It was the latter's first and only warplane.
The Curtiss C-1 Canada was a twin-engined bomber aircraft of the First World War which was designed by Curtiss of America to be built by their Canadian subsidiary for the British Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Flying Corps. Although large orders were placed, only twelve were built, the type being rejected in favour of more capable aircraft such as the Handley Page O/100.
The Short S.27 and its derivative, the Short Improved S.27, were a series of early British aircraft built by Short Brothers. They were used by the Admiralty and Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps for training the Royal Navy's first pilots as well as for early naval aviation experiments. An Improved S.27 was used by C.R. Samson to make the first successful take-off from a moving ship on 9 May 1912.
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.3 was a single-engined rotary engined biplane developed by the British Royal Aircraft Factory prior to the First World War. The B.E.4 and B.E.7 were virtually identical aircraft that differed only in the engine fitted.
The Graham-White Type VII "Popular" was an early British aircraft designed by J. D. North and built by the Grahame-White Aviation company, with the intention of producing a low-cost aircraft to popularize aviation. It was initially produced with a 35 hp Anzani 3-cylinder Y configuration engine and offered for sale at a price of less than £400. Despite its low price the aircraft included structural refinements such as hollow-section interplane struts. It was first flown in 1913.
