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This thread on the ‘War’s Worst Aircraft’ has been most interesting so here's a few of my ownthoughts.
I’d like to start with he BE12; confusion seems rife about this machine. It was NEVER designed as a fighter, not as ‘an answer’ to the Fokker Monoplanes or for any other reason. (See the Windsock Datafile on it; this is just a brief resume.) In early 1915 the BE2s were still doing well in France, but a more powerful version was obviously a good idea. The only engine readily available was thr RAF's own 140hp RAF 4 and the resulting a/c (to become the BE12) also became a single-seater. Intended tasks for this a/c seem to have been long-range recon and bomb-dropping – no fighters had yet appeared, so no real defensive ability was designed into the type. (The first Fokker E Type appeared at the Front in June 1915, exactly the same month as the first BE12 was converted). The fact that BE12s WERE pressed into service as ‘fighters’, on ‘secondary’ fronts like Macedonia and Palestine, shouldn't hide the fact that it wasn’t designed as a fighter. That said, it has to be said that it was a mediocre fighting machine.
On to the BE2. The big problem with the BE2 was that in remained in front-line service LONG after it had been seen to be totally obsolete. (It was hardly alone in this though, not just in WWI). When the BE2 was designed, and in the early days of the war, it was probably as good as any other aircraft in the world for the task for which it was designed – it was certainly a better aircraft for war-time service than the Taube, for instance. As soon as the first real fighters appeared in 1915, however, it was totally outclassed. To still be using what was basically the same aircraft on the Western Front as late as Autumn 1917 seems to me to be little short of criminal. I’ve never understood why the RFC persisted with the obsolete pilot-in –the-rear, observer-in-the-front layout right until the end. A comparison with the German AS seems interesting. Very soon after the first real fighters appeared in mid-1915, German two-seater manufacturers (Albatros, LVG, etc.) took their unarmed B-Types, changed the crew positions and gave the observer a ring-mounted mg, these new C-Types being in service before the end of 1915. Why the RFC didn’t do the same with the BE2 has always escaped me – the BE2 would still have been a very sedate aerial conveyance, but it might have given the crews SOME kind of a chance against the D-Types. Interestingly enough, the Belgian AF did just that (change the crew positions around and give the observer a ring-mounted mg) on the BE2s that were supplied to them. They even managed to do it in their own workshops, not even in a factory, so it couldn’t have been that difficult to do!
But this has gotten a bit away from the real subject of the thread. So, by nationality, here are my suggestions for the War’s Worst Aircraft
Britain: BE12 (inevitable, really), DH5 (a very unspectacular a/c, with a poor front-line record), the DH9 (a basically very good design let down by an appalling engine) and, the worst, the RE8 (Yes, I know it did sterling service in France and other fronts, but I feel that was due solely to the bravery, determination and aggressiveness of its crews. It really was a dreadful aircraft.)
France: Spad A2/A4 (the pulpit Spads; a truly horrible concept. How DID they get gunners for such a design?)
Germany: the AGO C-Types (structurally weak)
Austria-H; the AH Empire produced several types of wholly undistinguished and now virtually forgotten two-seaters, but for sheer badness the Aviatik BIII stands out. Nicknamed (NOT kindly) as the ‘Rocking Chair’ it seems to have achieved the difficult distinction of being over-weight, under-powered, structurally weak and a bitch to fly. It was so bad that apparently crews at one unit in Russia refused to fly it. (There were other types possibly even worse – the Knoller C-Types were never even allowed to get to the Front)
But for me, the War’s WORST a/c is another Austro-Hungarian type – the Hansa-Brandenburg D.I, the star-strutter (aka as the KD). Virtually impossible to fly, especially the early a/c with the tiny rudder seemingly added to the rear of the fuselage as an afterthought, virtually no pilot visibility in ANY direction and not even a synchronised mg, merely a gun mounted on the upper wing which a) seriously unbalanced the aircraft; B) added greatly to the Thing’s already massive drag; c) couldn’t really be aimed properly; and d) couldn’t be cleared in the event of a jam – which was hardly uncommon with the belt-fed Schwarzlose. All in all, a REAL turkey.
Sorry if this has turned out to be a rather L-O-N-G message!
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5 July 2003, 08:26 PM
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