Bristol Fighter question

Welcome Forumites!

Lads and lasses: I have a couple of questions regarding the Bristol Fighter.

Did it, at any point, have 2 forward-firing machine guns? Also, does anyone know when they started painting this aircraft with aluminium paint, and did this scheme see service during WW1? Lastly, was this plane ever used as a ground-attack aircraft? Unfortunately, I have very limited information on this airplane, just the usual pictures in the usual books that everyone owns.

Best Wishes to everybody, Ken. *;D

[MikeW]

Ken,

I can't answer your specific questions, but I can recommend two books:

Bristol F2B Fighter by Chaz Bowyer, pub by Ian Allan, ISBN 0 7110 15627.

The Aeroplanes of the Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing) by Jack Bruce, pub by Putnams, ISBN 0 370 30084 x

Both long out of print but well worth looking for on Abebooks.com or the bookfinder of your choice.

Mike

Ken

I believe the silver paint scheme was used by Bristol Fighters out in India 1919 to about 1928. I know that it was used in India, in the ground-attack role. I had a number of interesting conversations with a gentleman, now sadly deceased who had flown the F2b in the 'Policing the Empire from the Air' role, in his case up the Khyber pass. He and the rest of his squadron were based near the fort at Quetta and made daily patrols up and down the Kyber pass, strafing any suspicious natives who may be up to no good. This was done with coopers bombs, and the 2 machine guns on board.

He stated that to him, this was more frightening than when he flew the Bristol Fighter on the Western front, as due to altitude and heat engine failures became common. He told me that they carried a number of Gold Coins and what was called a 'Goolie chit' which was a document in the various languages of the region stating that the bearer was a British Officer and if he was returned intact the native would be well rewarded. By all accounts the Afghan women had a nasty habit of cutting off the testicles of their prisoners , stuffing them in the victims mouth and then sowing the mouth shut. :-X
Apparantly a sure way to win a bravery award was to land next to your stricken comrades and pick them up before the inhabitants of the Khyber Pass could get to them.

It sounds like a hell of a way to die.

Best wishes

Old Bill

[DavidErrol]

Standard forward firing armament is a single Vickers mounted inside the fuselage and firing through an opening in the top of the radiator. A few F2Bs had a Lewis mounted on the top wing centre section. The reconstructed F2466(?) at Hendon, is so equipped. This Lewis could be pulled back into a semi-vertical attitude for reloading.

DE

[Mac]

How many Lewis guns are attached to the Scarff ring at the rear cockpit on the Hendon reconstruction? 2 or 3 ?

Mac

[TonyWilliams]

I've never heard of a flexible mounting with three Lewis guns - that would be a real handful.

BY the end of WW1 it was becoming common to replace single defensive mountings in all types of aircraft with twins, but postwar they reverted to singles, presumably for reasons of economy and ease of use.

Tony Williams
Military gun and ammunition website: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.ukDiscussion forum at: http://forums.delphiforums.com/autogun/messages/

Ken,

>Also, does anyone know when they started
>painting this aircraft with aluminium paint,

In Palestine it was post war, I dont know of any picture of a No.1 Sqn AFC aircraft being in aluminium dope. In February 1919 1 Sqn handed their aircraft over to No.111 Sqn RAF. I dont know if No.111 aluminium doped them or not.

In the early part of No.1 squadrons service with Bristol's there are plenty of white and white/PC10 Bristols. I dont know if these were schemes inherited from No.111 Sqn who they received their early Bristols from, or an Australian thing. I havent seen any pictures of white Bristols with No.111 though.

There is also the claim in numerous places of Paul and Weir's "yellow devil" a yellow Bristol Fighter they flew. It also appears in a captured Turkish order to avoid the yellow airplane. No pictures though, it may be a CDL Bristol.....

Neville found a picture of B1148 in all PC10 garb, compared to an earlier all white scheme. There is profiles of both schemes at,

http://www.australianflyingcorps.org/aircr...ofileb1148.html

There are also more No.1 Sqn profiles at,

http://www.australianflyingcorps.org/aircr...t/profiles.html


>Lastly, was this plane ever used as
>a ground-attack aircraft?

Yes No.1 squadron used it in a multi-role, it did everything from scouting, patrolling, reconn, bombing to landing on German airfields and being used to drop off a pilot who went around burning German aircraft. Probably the best known is it's use at the Battle of Armageddon when a Turkish Army was strafed and bombed when caught on a mountain pass.

After the war when Britian was tryig to get rid of some of the over-supply it had of military aircraft and offered them to the dominions as imperial gifts to get their own local air forces going, Australia was offered, SE5a's, DH9's, Pups and 504K's. Williams tried to negotiate for Bristol Fighters, which would have supported the Australian requirement for a multi-role long range aircraft. The RAF werent stupid though, Bristol Fighters werent part of the Imperial Gift deal.



cam

Hello everybody,

Thanks to everyone who responded to this thread, it really has cleared up a lot of questions. I particularly like the colour profiles on the Australian Flying Corp website. I was unaware that there was a white colour scheme, I wouldn't mind applying this scheme to a model.

Old Bill: I appreciated reading your statement about operations on or near the Khyber Pass. Coincidence has it that my late Father served with the Royal Indian Air Force (as a Flight Engineer) from 1948 to 1953. He often used to tell me various stories that would make your hair curl; a lot of these stories came down from senior officers, who in their younger days, were flyers in the 1920s & 1930s: I believe most of their operations were over Iraq and the situations were very similar to what you've described.

Best Wishes, Ken. :-D

For a silver dope scheme, Aust War Mem site, www.awm.gov.au, advanced search, A04367 has serial F4643/31 in s.d. with grey nose.
While there, inspect the modeller's nightmare, P01976.006, being fish scales. Bristol PIKE'r?

[Romani]

I've never heard of a flexible mounting with three Lewis guns - that would be a real handful.

I recall seeing an illustration of a Italian Caproni bomber (Ca.33 or Ca.5) with 3 Lewis on the rear station, above the propeller.

I don't know more details, it was many years ago, but I'm positive it had three MGs and the caption said so.