RAF Centenary 100 Famous Aircraft Vol 1: Early Fighters and Bombers INCLUDING SE5 Vimy Gladiator Blenheim www.keypublishing.com RARE IMAGES AND PERIOD CUTAWAYS ISSUE 36 £7.95 Your favourite magazine is also available digitally. DOWNLOAD THE APP NOW FOR FREE. FREE APP In app issue £6.99 2 Months £5.99 Annual £29.99 SEARCH: Aviation Archive Read on your iPhone & iPad Android PC & Mac Blackberry kindle fi re Windows 10 SEARCH SEARCH ALSO FLYPAST AEROPLANE FREE APP AVAILABLE FOR FREE APP IN APP ISSUES £3.99 IN APP ISSUES £3.99 DOWNLOAD How it Works. Simply download the Aviation Archive app. Once you have the app, you will be able to download new or back issues for less than newsstand price! Don’t forget to register for your Pocketmags account. This will protect your purchase in the event of a damaged or lost device. It will also allow you to view your purchases on multiple platforms. PC, Mac & iTunes Windows 10 Available on PC, Mac, Blackberry, Windows 10 and kindle fire from Requirements for app: registered iTunes account on Apple iPhone,iPad or iPod Touch. Internet connection required for initial download. Published by Key Publishing Ltd. The entire contents of these titles are © copyright 2018. All rights reserved. App prices subject to change. 127/18 RAF Centenary 100 Famous Aircraft Vol 1: Early Fighters and Bombers he ‘RAF’. Three letters, pure and simple. Nothing else is changing killing machine. From the Sopwith Camel to the Gladiator, from required to identify its allegiance. Formed 100 years ago the Vickers Vimy to the Blenheim, Volume 1 of our ‘RAF Centenary’ series Ton 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force is the world’s oldest covers the formative years of the world’s greatest air force, featuring 25 independent air force, and has the history to match. Throughout its famous aircraft from the age. Back in 1918 the RAF was given the motto distinguished career it has shaped the course of modern history and, ‘Per Ardua ad Astra’, through adversity to the stars. Rarely can a motto as such, has had a profound effect on all our lives. have been so apt. All this seems a far cry from the battlefields of World War 1 where pilots of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service were fighting for AVIATION ARCHIVE SERIES survival in flimsy fabric-covered machines. But this was the age when Volume 1 of our ‘RAF Centenary’ salute is No 36 in the successful Aviation military supremacy began to swing away from land and sea and a ‘new’ Archive series. The aircraft have been listed chronologically under date service was born to take control of the skies, and with it the battlefield. of entering RAF service. It features unparalleled photographic coverage, With its combined might, the newly formed Royal Air Force ruled the including many exclusive and rare shots that have never been published skies of the world. However, after the war came a time of great austerity before. The words and photographs are complemented by ‘period’ and the service was drastically cut back, becoming a shadow of its former cutaways from the talented pens of the ‘Flight’ and ‘Aeroplane’ artists of glory… that is until the emerging threat of Nazi Germany triggered the era, together with unique aircraft profiles. another age of rapid expansion. This then is the fascinating story of the early years of the RAF, a time Cover image: A sight dreaded by German pilots over the Western Front in when the flying machine evolved from a ‘novelty’ into a serious game- 1918, the angular shape of the SE5a. John Dibbs/The Plane Picture Co Aviation Archive Series RAF Centenary: 100 Famous Aircraft – Vol 1: Early Fighters and Bombers • Editor: Allan Burney • Design: Philip Hempell • Publisher and Managing Director: Adrian Cox • Executive Chairman: Richard Cox • Commercial Director: Ann Saundry • Distribution: Seymour Distribution Ltd +44 (0)20 7429 4000 • Printing: Warners (Midlands) PLC, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH. All rights reserved. The entire content of Aviation Archive is © Key Publishing 2018. Reproduction in whole or in part and in any form whatsoever is strictly prohibited without the prior permission of the Publisher. We are unable to guarantee the bona fides of any of our advertisers. Readers are strongly recommended to take their own precautions before parting with any information or item of value, including, but not limited to, money, manuscripts, photographs or personal information in response to any advertisements within this publication. Published by Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincs PE19 1XQ. Tel: +44 (0) 1780 755131. Fax: +44 (0) 1780 757261. Website: www.keypublishing.com ISBN: 9781912205202 4 CONTENTS RAF Centenary 100 Famous Aircraft Vol 1: Early Fighters and Bombers CONTENTS 5 6 RAF SE5A 10 SOPWITH CAMEL 14 AIRCO DH9 16 HANDLEY PAGE O/400 21 SOPWITH SNIPE 24 VICKERS VIMY 30 GLOSTER GREBE 32 ARMSTRONG WHITWORTH SISKIN III 34 VICKERS VIRGINIA 36 HAWKER WOODCOCK 37 GLOSTER GAMECOCK 38 BRISTOL BULLDOG 46 HANDLEY PAGE HINAIDI 48 HAWKER HART 53 HAWKER FURY 56 FAIREY GORDON 61 VICKERS VILDEBEEST 66 HAWKER DEMON 68 HANDLEY PAGE HEYFORD 72 GLOSTER GAUNTLET 74 HAWKER HIND 76 BOULTON PAUL OVERSTRAND 78 GLOSTER GLADIATOR 86 HANDLEY PAGE HARROW 90 BRISTOL BLENHEIM 6 FIGHTER Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a hen the Royal Air Force was formed The SE5 was designed around the promising – a shortcoming that was alleviated somewhat, on 1 April 1918, it inherited the new Hispano-Suiza 8A V8 engine, the Royal but never entirely, by shortening the wingspan Wvery latest generation of aircraft Flying Corps requesting that the scout be a and reducing the rake of the wingtips in later forged from the technology of war, efficient robust machine that could be safely flown by production SE5s and SE5as. Engine reduction killing machines designed to defeat the inexperienced pilots. Inevitably, this meant and gun synchronisation problems also afflicted enemy. One of these fighters was the rakish that experienced pilots found it less nimble early SE5s. Amongst the first pilots to fly the SE5 Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a, an aircraft that than they would like. No 56 Squadron was the was 32-victory ace Capt Albert Ball, an eccentric had already gained legendary status. The first unit to receive SE5s, being issued with the but brilliantly aggressive loner whose exploits SE5a remained a vital element of the ‘new’ aircraft at London Colney in March 1917. One were already legendary in the RFC. Ball had RAF until the armistice. outstanding feature of the new fighter was a high expectations for the SE5, but after giving Undoubtedly one of the best British fighters large ‘glasshouse’, which encircled half of the the first prototype a 10-minute test flight on of World War 1, the SE5a was easily the most forward cockpit area. It was not liked by service 23 November 1916 he remarked with bitter successful aircraft designed by the Royal Aircraft pilots, however, who thought it cumbersome regret that the new scout had ‘turned out a Factory (confusingly abbreviated as RAF). and a danger to the man in the cockpit in the dud’. He proceeded to modify his personal Although less agile than the Sopwith Camel, it event of a crash. These first production SE5s machine and replaced the ‘half-glasshouse’ with was much easier to fly, dived and climbed faster did not make a promising impression on their a small Avro windscreen. The lower slide on the and could withstand severe battle damage. pilots, who complained of poor lateral control Lewis’ Foster mount was lengthened by two RAF SE5A 7 Above: No 74 Squadron B Flight line up at replaced by internally fitted fuel and water RAF SE5a Clairmarais North in the late summer of 1918. gravity tanks behind the leading edge of the SE5a ‘2’ was assigned to Capt Keith ‘Grid’ upper wing centre section. However, it was the Type: Fighter Caldwell (25 victories). via Aviation-images.com subsequent replacement of the SE5’s 150hp Crew: 1 Length: 20ft 11in (6.37m) Hispano-Suiza with the Wolseley-developed Wingspan: 26ft 7.5in (8.11m) inches to make it easier for the pilot to replace Viper engine that proved to be the fighter’s Height: 9ft 6in (2.89m) the ammunition drums, and Ball discarded saviour, and this 200hp motor was installed in Engine: Wolseley W.4a Viper his synchronised Vickers gun entirely. He also most SE5as, which began arriving in service in of 215hp removed the petrol and water gravity tanks June 1917. Max Speed: 138mph (222km/h) from the upper wing and installed long SPAD- Max all-up weight: 1,976lb (896kg) type exhaust pipes to the engine. Ball noted Into service Range: 300 miles (483km) that his alterations resulted in a considerable By December 1917, Nos 24, 32, 40, 41, 56, 60 Armament: 1 x fixed 0.303in improvement in performance. Many of the ace’s and 84 Squadrons had received SE5as and Vickers machine gun revisions were adopted for future production the aircraft was now considered to be the and 1 x 0.303in Lewis aircraft, and the SE5 was the better for it. best British fighter of the day. With the Camel machine gun on The undercarriage wheels were also moved revelling in medium to low altitude combat, the Foster mount farther forward and the external overwing tank SE5a was left to hold its own at higher ceilings. 8 FIGHTER Fortunately for the RFC and, from 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force (RAF), the SE5a was the superior aircraft at altitudes exceeding 10,000ft RFC/RAF SE5a units in any case.