Vickers F.B.5

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Vickers F.B 5 "Gun Bus"

Gunbus of the RFC
Type	fighter
Manufacturer	#REQUIRED
Maiden flight	July 1914
Introduced	5 February 1915
Retired	1916
Primary users	Royal Flying Corps Aéronautique Militaire
Number built	224

The Vickers F.B.5 "Gunbus" was the first operational British aircraft purpose-built for air-to-air combat, making it debatably the world's first true fighter aircraft. The F.B.5 (Fighting Biplane 5) was a two-seat pusher biplane armed with a single Lewis gun operated by the observer in the front of the nacelle.

The F.B.5 first flew in July 1914 and entered service with No.5 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) on 5 February 1915. No. 11 Squadron RFC became the world's first fighter squadron when, fully equipped with the F.B.5, it deployed to Villers-Bretonneux, France on 25 July, 1915. Second Lieutenant G.S.M. Insall of 11 Squadron won the Victoria Cross for an action on 7 November 1915 in which he destroyed a German aircraft while flying a Gunbus. No. 18 Squadron RFC, which deployed to France in November 1915, also operated the F.B.5 exclusively.

The F.B.5 was Vickers only significant operational aircraft of the First World War, the Vickers Vimy bomber entering service too late to have an impact. The F.B.5 was developed from the line of Vickers' "Experimental Fighting Biplanes", starting with the Type 18 "Destroyer" (Vickers E.F.B.1) which had been demonstrated in 1913 armed with a single belt-fed Maxim machine gun. The F.B.5 was powered by a single 100-hp Gnome Monosoupape 9-cylinder rotary engine driving a two-bladed propeller. The F.B.5's performance was mediocre and by the end of 1915 it was thoroughly out-classed by the German scouts, in particular the emerging Fokker Eindecker.

In total 224 F.B.5s were produced, 119 in Britain by Vickers, 99 in France and 6 in Denmark. In 1916 it was replaced by the marginally improved Vickers F.B.9. Despite its moderate effectiveness, the Vickers F.B.5 did have a lasting legacy as German pilots continued to refer to British pusher aircraft as "Vickers-types". Many victories over DH.2 or F.E.2 pushers were reported as destruction of a "Vickers".