Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.8 | |
---|---|
![]() | |
B.E.8 prototype | |
Role | Two-seat general purpose biplane |
Manufacturer | Various (designed at Royal Aircraft Factory) |
Designer | John Kenworthy |
First flight | 1913 |
Introduction | 1914 |
Retired | 1916 |
Primary user | Royal Flying Corps |
Number built | approx 70 |
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.8 was a British two-seat single-engined general purpose biplane of the First World War, designed by John Kenworthy at the Royal Aircraft Factory in 1913. [1] Small numbers were used by the Royal Flying Corps over the Western Front in the first year of the war, with the type being used as a trainer until 1916.
The B.E.8 was the definitive development of the earlier B.E 3 type, and the last of the B.E. series to be designed with a rotary engine. The main changes were that the fuselage now rested on the lower wing, in the normal way for a tractor biplane, and that the tail unit was changed to the B.E.2 pattern. Three prototypes were built at Farnborough with a single long cockpit for both crew members. The production aircraft had two separate cockpits and were built by sub-contractors. The improved B.E.8a of 1915 had new B.E.2c type wings, featuring ailerons instead of wing warping and a revised tail unit.
Both models of the aircraft entered service with the Royal Flying Corps and a small number served in France in 1914 and early 1915 but most were used by training units. [2]
Data from The Royal Aircraft Factory [3]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Related lists
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.
Between 1911 and 1914, the Royal Aircraft Factory used the F.E.2 designation for three quite different aircraft that shared only a common "Farman" pusher biplane layout.
The Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 was a British two-seat biplane reconnaissance and bomber aircraft of the First World War designed and produced at the Royal Aircraft Factory. It was also built under contract by Austin Motors, Daimler, Standard Motors, Siddeley-Deasy and the Coventry Ordnance Works.
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 Armstrong Whitworth F.K.3 was a British two-seat general-purpose biplane built by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft during the First World War. By the end of the war it was considered obsolete for combat.
The Airco DH.5 was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft. It was designed and manufactured at British aviation company Airco. Development was led by aircraft designer Geoffrey de Havilland as a replacement for the obsolete Airco DH.2.
The Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8 was a British single-seat fighter of the First World War designed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. It could not escape the drag penalty imposed by its tail structure and was no match for the Albatros fighters of late 1916.
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 Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.9 was a British experimental reconnaissance aircraft of World War I.
The Bristol T.B.8, or Bristol-Coanda T.B.8 was an early British biplane built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company and designed by the Romanian Henri Coandă. Fifty four Bristol T.B.8s were built, being mainly used as a trainer. A small number of Bristol T.B.8s were briefly used as bombers at the start of the World War I by the Royal Naval Air Service.
The Martin-Handasyde Scout 1 was a British biplane aircraft of the early part of the First World War built by Martin-Handasyde Limited.
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 Morane-Saulnier BB was a military observation aircraft produced in France during World War I for use by Britain's Royal Flying Corps. It was a conventional single-bay biplane design with seating for the pilot and observer in tandem, open cockpits. The original order called for 150 aircraft powered by 110-hp Le Rhône 9J rotary engines, but shortages meant that most of the 94 aircraft eventually built were delivered with 80 hp Le Rhône 9C rotaries instead. A water-cooled Hispano-Suiza 8A engine was trialled as an alternative in the Type BH, but this remained experimental only. A production licence was sold to the Spanish company Compañía Española de Construcciones Aeronáuticas (CECA), which built twelve fitted with Hispano-Suiza engines in 1916.
The Avro 528 was an unsuccessful large span single-engined biplane built to an Admiralty contract in 1916. It carried a crew of two; only one was built.
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.2 was an early British single-seat scout aircraft. Designed and built at the Royal Aircraft Factory in 1912–13 as the B.S.1, the prototype was rebuilt several times before serving with the Royal Flying Corps over the Western Front in the early months of the First World War.
The Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.1 was an experimental two-seat single-engined biplane from before World War I, intended to develop reconnaissance aircraft.
The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.4a was an experimental British single-engined scout aircraft of the First World War. Four S.E.4a aircraft were built, being used for research purposes and as home-defence fighters by the Royal Flying Corps. In spite of its type number it had little or no relationship to the earlier S.E.4
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 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.
![]() | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.8 . |