Bristol F2 Fighter Aces of World War I

A sting in the tail

'A curious feature of the types of British aircraft of 1914-1918 was their marked individuality (like so many of those who flew them)', wrote Maj W F J Harvey, president of the Cross & Cockade Society of Great Britain and 26-victory ace of World War 1. 'Some were hated, some, like the pretty kittenish Sopwith Pup, were loved, some, like the SE 5 and the old workhorse FE 2b, were respected for their sterling qualities. The Farmans were funny jokes, one or two others were jokes in rather poor taste, and there was the Camel, that fantastic brainchild of Sopwith, which was both feared and respected. There was only one which was both respected and loved by all who flew it - the Bristol Fighter'.

The Bristol Fighter's genesis began in 1916, when the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) began seeking a reconnaissance aeroplane to replace the all-too-stable and painfully vulnerable BE 2c. The Royal Aircraft Factory, which created the BE, responded with the RE 8, whose principal improvement was to exchange the pilot's and observer's positions, giving the latter a vastly improved field of fire for his Scarff ring-mounted 0.303-in Lewis machine gun than he had had sitting amid the wings, struts and wires of the BE2c. Meanwhile, at British Aeroplane Ltd in Bristol, its chief engineer, Frank Sowter Barnwell, also offered a replacement in the form of the R 2A, which featured a fuselage raised above the lower wing by struts in order to improve the pilot's view over the upper wing. A revised version of the Bristol design with unequal-span wings and a 150-hp V8 Hispano-Suiza engine was designated the R 2B, but it was quickly superseded by another variant with equal-span wings and a new 190-hp Rolls-Royce Falcon I V12 engine.

At that point, Barnwell's brainchild was being regarded as a 'reconnaissance-fighter', and by the time the first prototype (A3303) flew on 9 September 1916, it had been redesignated as the F 2A. With its side-mounted 'ear' radiators replaced by a circular radiator in the nose, A3303 underwent its official tests between 16 and 18 October, using both a two and four-bladed propeller. The RFC was already impressed with the new aeroplane's potential, and testing only confirmed its decision to order 50 production examples.

It might be noted at this point that the term 'fighter' was used more often for two-seat than single-seat aircraft. The latter were originally short-range reconnaissance aeroplanes appropriately called 'scouts', and after they were successfully armed with machine guns, the RFC continued to use that term for them throughout the war. Other nations, however, referred to single-seaters by such reflections on their lone hunter status as the French 'avion de chasse', the German 'Jagdflugzeug' and American 'pursuit plane'. A fighter, on the other hand, was essentially a reconnaissance aeroplane with either the armament or performance to take care of itself, the most notable previous example being the Royal Aircraft Factory's 'Farman Experimental' FE 2 - a large, lumbering two-seat pusher that, thanks to tactics devised by its crews, had proven to be surprisingly difficult prey to its attackers.