| F.E.8 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Role | Pusher biplane fighter |
| Manufacturer | Royal Aircraft Factory, Darracq Motor Engineering, Vickers |
| First flight | September 1915 |
| Introduction | 2 August 1916 |
| Status | retired |
| Primary user | Royal Flying Corps |
| Number built | 295 |
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 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.
On the whole the new design, produced by a team led by John Kenworthy followed the conventional "Farman" layout, as did the competing Airco DH.2 designed by Geoffrey de Havilland, who had also previously worked at the Royal Aircraft Factory – but it had some novel features. [1]
The nacelle was an all-metal structure – being framed in steel tube and covered with duralumin. The prototypes were fitted with large streamlined spinners on the propeller hub, although these were soon removed, and the production F.E.8s were built without them. The wings had a narrow chord, giving them a high aspect ratio. [2] They featured dihedral outboard of the wide centre section, and the ailerons were of unusually long span – occupying the entire wing trailing edge outboard of the tail booms. The booms themselves were attached to the main spar of the tailplane, rather than the rudder post, giving them taper in side elevation rather than in plan, as was done with the DH.2. This allowed the fitting of a variable incidence tailplane, although this was not adjustable in flight, but only on the ground. [2] A single 100 hp (75 kW) Gnome 9 "Type B2" Monosoupape rotary engine driving a four-bladed propeller powered the aircraft, [3] with the capability of taking the lower-powered Le Rhône 9C 80 hp (60 kW) nine-cylinder rotary.
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 production machines the gun was mounted directly in front of the pilot, in the manner of the D.H.2. Other changes required before the aircraft entered production included extra fuel to counter criticism from the commander of the Royal Flying Corps in France, Hugh Trenchard, that the F.E.8's endurance was too short. [4] The new fighter was not a great improvement on the D.H.2 – although a little faster it was rather less manoeuvrable. It was nonetheless ordered into production from Darracq Motor Engineering Company and Vickers. [2] Neither manufacturer delivered their F.E.8s particularly quickly, so that the type only reached the front in any numbers six months after the D.H.2. [5]
The second prototype had a spinner mounted when it was sent to No. 5 Squadron RFC at Abeele for evaluation on 26 December 1915, but had been removed by January 1916. It became the nearly exclusive mount of Captain Frederick Powell. [6]
A few early production F.E.8s were briefly used by No. 29 Squadron RFC alongside its DH.2s in June 1916, but it was not until August that No. 40 Squadron became fully operational on the type. The only other unit to be completely equipped with the type, No. 41 Squadron, arrived in France in October. [7] [8]
After a fairly good start, the F.E.8 units quickly ran into problems with the new German fighters. The only ace on the type was Edwin Benbow who was credited with shooting down a German fighter on 6 March 1917, probably that of Manfred von Richthofen, who force landed with a holed fuel tank and narrowly escaping incineration. [9]
Just three days later, on 9 March, 40 Squadron was again involved with Jagdstaffel 11, when nine F.E.8 were engaged by five Albatros D.IIIs led by Richthofen. Four F.E.8s were shot down, four others badly damaged, and the survivor caught fire when landing. [10] After this disaster No. 40 Squadron was re-equipped with Nieuport 17s but No. 41 kept their pushers until July 1917 – becoming the last single-seat pusher fighter squadron in France, using them for ground attack duties during the Battle of Messines. [11]
Two F.E.8s were sent to Home Defence units in 1917, but the type was not adopted as a home defence fighter. [11]
Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome's founder, Cole Palen, built the first known flyable reproduction of an F.E.8, which is believed to have first flown in 1970 at Old Rhinebeck with a Le Rhône 9C 80 hp rotary engine. It flew in the weekend air shows at Old Rhinebeck for a number of years, before being retired. It is currently on loan to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
The Owls Head Transportation Museum in Maine has another F.E.8 reproduction in its collection, powered by a modern air-cooled, horizontally opposed engine. It was built in California, before being flown cross country and donated to the Museum upon arrival.
United Kingdom 
Data from The Royal Aircraft Factory [12]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
Related lists
The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War-era single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the best known fighter aircraft of the Great War.
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 is a British single-engine tractor two-seat biplane, designed and developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. Most of the roughly 3,500 built were constructed under contract by private companies, including established aircraft manufacturers and firms new to aircraft construction.
The Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe was a British single-seat biplane fighter of the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was designed and built by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War, and came into squadron service a few weeks before the end of the conflict, in late 1918.
The Airco DH.2 was a single-seat pusher biplane fighter aircraft which operated during the First World War. It was the second pusher design by aeronautical engineer Geoffrey de Havilland for Airco, based on his earlier DH.1 two-seater.
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 is a British two-seat biplane reconnaissance and bomber aircraft of the First World War that was 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 Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 is a British biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. It was developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory by a team consisting of Henry Folland, John Kenworthy and Major Frank Goodden. It was one of the fastest aircraft of the war, while being both stable and relatively manoeuvrable. According to aviation author Robert Jackson, the S.E.5 was: "the nimble fighter that has since been described as the 'Spitfire of World War One'".
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 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 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 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 Airco DH.1 was an early military biplane of typical "Farman" pattern flown by Britain's Royal Flying Corps during World War I. By the time the powerplant for which it was designed was sufficiently plentiful it was obsolete as an operational aircraft, and apart from a few examples sent to the Middle East it served as a trainer and Home Defence fighter.
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.12 was a British single-seat aeroplane of The First World War designed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. It was essentially a single-seat version of the B.E.2.
The Nieuport 12 was a French sesquiplane reconnaissance, fighter aircraft and trainer used by France, Russia, Great Britain and the United States during World War I. Later production examples were built as trainers and served widely until the late 1920s.
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.9 was a British experimental reconnaissance aircraft of World War I.
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. 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 Vickers F.B.26 Vampire was a British single-seat pusher biplane fighter built by Vickers during the First World War.
The Vickers F.B.12 was a biplane pusher fighter aircraft developed during World War I by Vickers Limited. The failure of the engine for which it was designed, and the obsolescence of the pusher configuration, resulted in its remaining an experimental type only.
The Royal Aircraft Factory N.E.1 was a prototype British night fighter of the First World War. A single-engined pusher biplane, it was a development of the Royal Aircraft Factory's earlier F.E.9 fighter, but was not successful, only six being built.
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.
| Authority control: National |
|---|
