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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 1217.PDF
MAY 23, 1935. FLIGHT. 565 A typical war-time flying boat, the F.3, with two Rolls-Royce " Eagle ' 360 h.p. engines. [Flight photograph.) on the Western Front and took heavy toll of the B.E.2C's and other British machines. Its great merit was that it had a gun which could fire through the arc of the airscrew without hitting the blades. The British reply was to de sign the F.E.2B. and the D.H.2. Both of them were pushers, so that the air screw did not interfere with forward fire. The F.E. was a two-seater with the observer in the front seat, and the D.H.2 was a single-seater. Both were armed with movable Lewis guns. The idea of a fixed gun which is aimed by pointing the machine, as in the Fokker, came to the British later. The French Nieuport was also largely used by the British at that time. During the early weeks of the Somme battles the R.F.C. pretty well drove the German aeroplanes out of the sky. Then Boelcke organised fighting Jagd- staffels. The German designers produced the "Albatros" D.i and the Halberstadt D, and for a while the tables were turned. The Sopwith "Pup" and the Sopwith Triplane (the latter used almost exclusively by the R.N.A.S.) \V: *';'' V-:— V The D.H.9 (230 h.p. " Puma ") was built and used in large numbers in the war. (Flight photograph.) brought the British on to even terms again. The Bristol Fighter was the most formidable two-seater on either side, and took great toll of the enemy. Later versions of the " Albatros" appeared, and by the spring of 1918 the best German fighter was the Fokker triplane. By that time the British "scout" (i.e., fighter) squadrons were mainlv equipped with the S.E.5A. and the Sopwith "Camel." The two machines had different qualities, but each was as good as the best. The S.E. had one fixed Vickers gun firing through the propeller and one Lewis gun which fired over the upper plane. Not so manoeuvrable as some ether types, the S.E. was fast and strong. It could out- dive the German machines and so could break off a fight whenever the pilot so desired. The "Camel" was less fast, but was very quick in manoeuvre, especially in a right-hand turn. It had two Vickers guns hring through the propeller arc. As day bombers the D.H.4 and D.H.g did excellent work, while at the end of the war the Handley Page O/400 was the main British stand-by for night work. During the war the R.N.A.S. used landplanes, float planes, flying boats and airships. The floatplanes gave much trouble from the flimsy nature of the floats of those days. As aircraft carriers were gradually developed the floatplanes were less used. The F.3 and F.5 flying-boats did much fine work in reconnoitring the North Sea, and so did the non-rigid airships. These last were in particular invaluable as escorts to convoys of merchant ships, and so played a great part in defeating the submarine menace. They worked in close co-operation with destroyers, and it was the surface ships which usually accounted for the U-boats by means of depth charges. On April 1, 1918, the two flying arms of the Army and Navy were combined to form a new Service, the Royal Air Force. This.proved a great economy of both material and of personnel, and helped Britain to drive home the great superiority in the air which she had attained before the end of the war. Since the Armistice the R.A.F. has undertaken many tasks independently of the Navy and Army, of which the most notable are the air control exer cised in Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan, and in Aden. F. A. de V. R. The first British twin-engined bomber, the Handley Page 0/400, had two Rolls-Royce " Eagle ' engines of 360 h.p. each. This type did not come into service until near the end of the war. (Flight photograph.)
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