British Day1: SE5a
If you were to pick an iconic British fighter aircraft it would quite rightly be the Supermarine Spitfire, maybe the English Electic Lightening or possibly the Sopwith Camel. However we shouldn't forget the SE5 & SE5a. After all, they were good enough for Beauchamp-Proctor, Bishop, Mannock and McCudden...
The SE5a was considered by many pilots to be the best British single-seat fighter of the First World War. Designed at the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, the first production aircraft had the 150hp Hispano-Suiza fitted and were designated SE5. The later SE5a had the 200 or 220hp Hispani-Suiza or 200hp Wolseley Viper engine.
It was used by twenty-four squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force in France, Palestine, Macedonia, Mesopotamia and the United Kingdom, and equipped one squadron of the Australian Flying Corps and two of the United States Air Service on the Western Front
Comments
Jeeze, I thought that this was a contempoary shot the RAF over Afghanistan (since Britain can't afford helicopters anymore) - but I guess that's after the NEXT round of defense cuts.
Seriously, great kite (built lika a battlship) and no one ever settle the argument over whether it or the Camel was the better aircraft. Then there were the guys in the Brisfits...
Col Beausaber
Posted by: Beausaber | July 31, 2009 7:45 AM
No argument from me. The SE5a was far less likely than the Camel to kill its own pilot for no apparent reason.
At the risk of drawing the ire of the Bulldogs who frequent these premises, however, I have to admit that my favorite WWI fighter -- the one I'd have chosen to fly into combat, if I could -- would be the Fokker D.VII.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | July 31, 2009 3:51 PM
Must have been fun to fly with that 220 HS...over here, on the other side of the pond, they used to cut the V-8 "Hisso" in half to make a torquey sprint car motor for racing on the old fairgrounds horse tracks.
Posted by: Hughjimbissel | July 31, 2009 5:16 PM
Would it make me a "spotter" that the first thing I noticed was that the bottom ship still has its cooling jacket fitted to the lewis gun?
Posted by: ScaleyBack B*stard | July 31, 2009 8:26 PM