Bristol F.2B Fighter, G-AEPH, B1162 flying with a Sopwith Triplane replica during the Shuttleworth Season Premiere Airshow 2022.
The Bristol F.2B is the only airworthy original example in Europe. Built in 1918 it served with No.208 Squadron based in Turkey in 1923. The Bristol Aeroplane Company restored it and it flew again with the Shuttleworth Collection in 1951.
The engine and airframe underwent a complete refurbishment during 1980-82. In 1992 the engine was replaced by an overhauled unit. The original was rebuilt and is kept as a fully working spare.
The aircraft was further overhauled and re-covered between February 2019 and December 2020 and repainted to represent an aircraft of 22 Squadron, Royal Air Force (RAF) with serial number B1162, which was based at Villeneuve-les-Vertus, France in March 1918.
Designed by a team led by Frank Barnwell (who had experience as a frontline RFC pilot), the prototype Bristol Type 12 F.2A (C3303) was first flown on 9th September 1916 at Filton, fitted with a newly available 190 hp Rolls-Royce Falcon 1 inline engine.
The type was a twin-bay biplane, with the fuselage suspended mid-way between the wings in a similar manner to the earlier Gordon England biplanes. The pilot was seated forward, the observer / gunner being equipped with a Scarff-mounted machine gun in the rear cockpit. A forward-firing Vickers gun was mounted on the fuselage centreline. The type was ordered into service with 2 prototypes and 50 production F.2A being built before construction was switched to the Type 14 F.2B, the aircraft which became the definitive Bristol Fighter.
When production was switched to the F.2B the first 150 or so were fitted with either the Falcon I or Falcon II engine. The remainder received the Falcon III engine which meant they could achieve a top speed of around 123 mph and could reach 10,000 feet about 3 minutes faster.
The F.2B had a fully covered lower wing centre-section and downward sloped longerons in front of the cockpit, to improve the pilot’s view when landing. It was an agile dog-fighter, which had superiority over many of its single-seater opposition.
At some points engine supply was outpaced by airframe production and 5,300 Bristol F.2Bs were built in Britain, with an additional 68 in the USA. Rolls-Royce power plants of all types were utilised to offset the shortages. The Type 15's produced by sub-contractors received the Sunbeam Arab piston engine which relegated them to simple reconnaissance missions whilst the Type 16 was fitted with the Hispano-Suiza engine which failed to match the power of the Falcons.
In peacetime, the Bristol Fighter was used as an Army Cooperation machine, particularly in India and Iraq.
A structurally strengthened version the Bristol Type 96 was designated the Bristol Fighter Mk III. These aircraft were later converted in service to the Bristol Fighter Mk IV with increased weight (max 3,350 lb), taller fin, Handley Page slots and aerodynamically-balanced rudder.
There are 3 remaining airworthy aircraft with a number on static display, predominantly in museums around the UK and Europe. A replica aircraft was created at Filton to celebrate 100 years of aircraft manufacturing in Bristol, where the original Bristol Fighter was designed and built.
Sopwith Triplane, G-BZSC,NAW-1, wears the markings of Royal Naval Air Service machine N6290, 'Dixie II', which was flown by Flight Sub Lieutenant Anthony Rex Arnold of 8 (Naval) Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service, on the French Western Front during May and June 1917. The original aircraft was named simply 'Dixie'.
This replica was built by volunteers of Northern Aeroplane Workshops to original plans and delivered to Old Warden in June 1990. Due to the quality and accuracy of the workmanship Sir Thomas Sopwith declared it to be a late production aircraft instead. It’s powered by an original Clerget 130hp long stroke rotary 9BF engine.
The aeroplane first flew on 10th April 1992 and, following a full testing programme, made its first public display appearance at Old Warden on 27th June 1992. It suffered a minor landing accident in 2014 and was repaired in the Shuttleworth workshops during 2015. It returned to the air in 2017.
The prototype Sopwith Triplane appeared in May 1916 and was found to be highly manoeuvrable with a phenomenal rate of climb. They Triplane was only used by the Royal Naval Air Service fighter squadrons on the Western Front.
Several of the Royal Naval Air Squadron pilots scored many victories with it and German pilots made a specific request to their aircraft manufacturers to design and produce triplane fighters. Only the Fokker Dr1 was built by the Germans in quantity and it gained fame as the aircraft frequently flown by Manfred von Richthofen. The triplane concept had a brief life and in less than two years it had been eclipsed by new and more powerful biplane fighters on both sides.
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