Canadian Warplanes 1: Bristol F.2B Fighter

Bristol F.2B Fighter

(City of Vancouver Archives Photo, AM54-S4-: Gr War P11.2)

Bristol F.2B Fighter with Captain H.P. Sales and Lieutenant W.H. Welsh near San Quentin, France, ca 1918.

The Bristol F.2 Fighter was a British two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft of the First World War developed by Frank Barnwell at the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It is often simply called the Bristol Fighter, other popular names include the "Brisfit" or "Biff".

Although the type was intended initially as a replacement for the pre-war Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c reconnaissance aircraft, the new Rolls-Royce Falcon V12 engine gave it the performance of a two-seat fighter.

Despite a disastrous start to its career, the definitive F.2B version proved to be a manoeuvrable aircraft that was able to hold its own against single-seat fighters; its robust design ensured that it remained in military service into the 1930s. Some surplus aircraft were registered for civilian use and civilian versions proved popular.

Perhaps one of the best known flying aces to use the type was Canadian Andrew Edward McKeever, and his regular observer L.F. Powell.[18] By the end of 1917 McKeever had accumulated 30 shoot-downs of enemy aircraft, while Powell had achieved eight aerial kills, while operating the Fighter. McKeever later became a flying instructor stationed in England before becoming the commanding officer of No. 1 Squadron of the newly formed Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), where he continued to use the Fighter as his personal aircraft, which was later transferred to Canada. (Wikipedia)

(RFC Photo)

Bristol F.2B Fighter (Serial No. 13), RFC.  

(Library & Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4817977)

Bristol F.2B in Flight, ca 1918.

(RCAF Photo)

Bristol F.2B Fighter (Serial No. D-8096) in flight, RFC.

(Library & Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3643665)

Bristol F.2B, Canadian Air Board, Reg. No. G-CYBC, Rockcliffe, Ontario, c.1922.

(Library & Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3643666)

Bristol F.2B, Canadian Air Board, Reg. No. G-CYBC, Rockcliffe, Ontario, c.1922.

(Library & Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 338170)

Bristol F.2B Fighter, (Serial No. C-4611), RFC, ca. 1917.

(Library & Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 338162)

Bristol F.2B Fighter, (Serial No. C-4611), RFC, ca. 1917.

(Author Photos)

Bristol F.2B Fighter (Serial No. D-7889).  The Canada Air & Space Museum's aircraft is one of only three original Bristol Fighters still in existence worldwide.  It was built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1918.  It has been identified as aircraft D7889, as this number was stencilled on the remains of the aircraft's original engine cowling. Details of its service career are unknown, since most of the war records of the RFC were destroyed during bombing raids in London during the early 1940s.  The aircraft was restored by the Historic Aircraft Collection in the United Kingdom from the 1980s to early 2006.  That same year, it flew in several aerial displays in Britain, powered by the world's oldest airworthy Rolls-Royce aero engine.  The Museum acquired the Bristol Fighter in 2006, through trade of one of its 1945 Heinkel He-162 War Prize aircraft.  (CA&SM)

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