Bristol F.2B Fighter
- Period: First World War (1914-1918)
- Uses: Fighter-Reconnaissance
- First Flight: 1916
- Display Status: In Reserve Hangar.
The Bristol Fighter was the most successful two-seat combat aircraft of the First World War. It was initially designed as a reconnaissance machine to replace the Royal Aircraft Factory BE2c, which was quickly becoming obsolete. However, the Bristol Fighter’s robust design, powerful engine, good manoeuvrability and relatively heavy armament enabled it to excel as a fighter aircraft.
In light of the increasing losses of outdated reconnaissance machines, the origins of the Bristol Fighter began with a Royal Flying Corps request for a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft that was capable of defending itself. This implied a design that combined speed, manoeuvrability and effective defensive armament. However, the type’s operational debut with the Royal Flying Corps was a disaster. Before their potential was recognized, a number of Bristol Fighters were lost when they were flown in tight defensive formations calculated to give the observer a favourable shot. Only when crews realized that this large and seemingly unwieldy aircraft had all the speed and manoeuvrability of the German single-seat fighters did it become the most successful two-seat fighter of the First World War. Pilots flew this sturdy aircraft as they would single seat fighters, using their forward firing gun to best effect. It could also be defended effectively from the rear and could be dived at a higher speed than any other fighter on the Western Front. Numerous Canadian airmen flew Bristol Fighters during the war and one of the most celebrated was Lt.-Col. Andrew McKeever, who achieved all of his thirty-one aerial victories while exclusively flying the Bristol Fighter.
Following its wartime success, the Bristol Fighter was chosen to equip the peacetime Royal Air Force as an army co-operation aircraft. Despite their increasing age and the harsh operational conditions they were subjected to in various parts of the British Empire, reconditioned or modified versions built during the 1920s soldiered on until 1932. Several Bristol Fighters were included in an Imperial Gift to Canada in 1920, which played an important role in the establishment of the early Canadian Air Force. In this capacity, at least one Bristol Fighter is known to have operated from the historic airfield at Rockcliffe, where early aerial photographic techniques were developed, leading to the mapping of Canada’s vast North.
Museum Example
- Registration #: D-7889
- Manufacturer: Bristol Aeroplane Company, United Kingdom
- Manufacture Date: 1918
- Construction #: Unknown
- Acquisition Date: 2006
- Provenance: Exchange
From the more than five thousand Bristol Fighters that were eventually built, the Museum’s aircraft is one of only three original airworthy examples still in existence worldwide. A survivor from the First World War, it was acquired from Aero Vintage Limited in the United Kingdom, by trading another aircraft from the Museum’s collection. Built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1918, details of its subsequent service career remain unknown, since many Royal Flying Corps records from the First World War were destroyed in the early 1940s by bombing during the London Blitz. Nevertheless, the aircraft’s identity was determined to be D-7889, as this number was stencilled on the original remains of its engine cowlings. The aircraft’s lengthy and accurate restoration was completed in early 2006 and it flew in several aerial displays in the United Kingdom during the summer of that year, powered by the world’s oldest airworthy Rolls Royce aero engine.
Specifications
- Wing Span:
- 11.96 m (39 ft 3 in)
- Length:
- 7.87 m (25 ft 10 in)
- Height:
- 2.97 m (9 ft 9 in)
- Weight, Empty:
- 877 kg (1,934 lb)
- Weight, Gross:
- 1,261 kg (2,779 lb)
- Max Speed:
- 198 km/h (123 mph)
- Rate of Climb:
- 244 m (800 ft) /min
- Service Ceiling:
- 6,553 m (21,500 ft)
- Range:
- three hours’ endurance
- Power Plant:
- one 275 hp Rolls Royce Falcon III
