In the 1912 Military Aeroplane Competition, the B.E.2 outperformed all its competitors; it was put into production and quickly became the most numerous single type in the Royal Flying Corps. B.E.2c, a later variant nicknamed the 'Quirk' by its pilots, was designed for stability and intended mainly for reconnaissance. Matched against the German Fokker Eindecker fighter in the First World War, it was hopelessly outclassed. The Eindecker, piloted by top scoring German aces such as Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, made short work of the B.E.2c in the aerial bloodbath known as the 'Fokker Scourge'. Such was the B.E.2c's vulnerability to fighter attack that the British press dubbed it 'Fokker Fodder', while to the Germans it was known as 'Kaltes Fleisch' or 'Cold Meat'. British ace Albert Ball called it 'a bloody terrible aeroplane'. The B.E.2c slogged on throughout the War, and its poor performance against German fighters - and the failure to improve or replace it - caused great controversy in Britain. One MP attacked the B.E.2c and the Royal Aircraft Factory in the House of Commons, stating that RFC pilots were being 'murdered [rather] than killed'. The factory was cleared in the resultant judicial inquiry, but the woeful shortcomings of the RFC were exposed, heralding the establishment of the Royal Air Force.

Fokker Fodder: The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c

History

Hare, Paul R.

Military

Fonthill Media

Mount of Aces: The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a

The Sopwith Camel may be the best known British fighter of World War 1, but almost all scoring aces preferred the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a. It was well armed, fast, maneuverable and a superb gun platform. This is a fitting tribute to a design now nearly a century old and a memorial to the pilots who flew it in combat.

Europe

Those with any interest in the First World War will have have heard of the planes most associated with that conflict - the legendary Sopwith Camel and Royal Aircraft Factory's S.E.5a, which are often called the "Spitfire" and "Hurricane" of the Great War. Aviation enthusiasts might even know of the Camel's predecessors, the Sopwith Pup or the Triplane. But what of the many other planes that saw active service in the war? This is the story of those armed airplanes whose names few people can recall, the 'Forgotten Fighters' of the First World War, including the pusher 'gunbuses' of the early war years, the strange 'pulpit' design of the B.E.9, the desperate conversions of reconnaissance machines that were never intended to be armed, and those which were thought too tricky for the average pilot to handle. It is also the story of the brave men who flew these machines, fighting, and too often dying, for a cause they believed in. Some of these airplanes only served in small numbers and others in areas away from the main battle on the Western Front, but all made a vital contribution to the winning of the war. And these lost but iconic fighter aircraft, and the brave young men who flew them, deserve to be remembered just as much as the more famous aces in their legendary machines. This is their story.

Britain's Forgotten Fighters of the First World War

From the author of Fonthill Media’s Fokker Fodder: The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c, Mount of Aces: The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a is a fitting testament to a legendary fighter. Arguably, the Sopwith Camel may be the best known British fighter plane of the First World War that took on the mighty and feared Jastas over the killing fields that were the trenches. However, almost all the highest scoring aces including McCudden and Mannock preferred the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a. It was well-armed, fast, highly maneuverable and a superb gun platform, and yet it was easy and safe for even the most sketchily trained pilot to fly. The S.E.5a was deadly. Not only could it absorb punishment and turn on a penny, it packed a wallop with its .303 Vickers and .303 Lewis machine guns. Over 5,500 examples were produced in the war and Major Edward C. ‘Mick’ Mannock scored fifty of his seventy-three victories in the S.E.5a. The S.E.5a helped turn the tide of war in the Allies’ favor. After the war, examples took part i air races and were employed in the ‘sky-writings’ industry for advertising purposes in both Britain and America. And today, all over the world, homebuilders are producing reproductions of the S.E.5a for sport and leisure flying, a fitting tribute to a design now nearly a century old and an appropriate memorial to the thousands of pilots who flew it in combat in defense of their country.

Soon after entering the war in April 1917 American propaganda promised that she would ‘Darken the skies over Europe’ by sending over ‘the Greatest Aerial Armada ever seen’.Encouraged by the French Government America promised to build no less than 22,000 airplanes within a year and to field, and to maintain, a force of 4,000 machines, all of the latest type, over the Western Front during 1918, not only to provide adequate air support for her own troops, but because she saw this as a way to use her industrial strength to bypass the squalor of the war in the trenches, and so bring an end to the stalemate of attrition into which the war had descended. However, by the time of the Armistice more than 18 months later just a few hundred American built airplanes had reached the war fronts and several investigations into the causes of the failure of the project were already in progress.

Undarkened Skies: The American Aircraft Building Programme of the First World War

RAF E8 at War (Windsock Datafile 153)

Albatros Productions

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hare, Paul R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hare, Paul R.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hare, Paul R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Fokker Fodder: The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c

Mount of Aces: The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a

Britain's Forgotten Fighters of the First World War

Mount of Aces: The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a

Undarkened Skies: The American Aircraft Building Programme of the First World War

RAF E8 at War (Windsock Datafile 153)