| B.E.2c | |
|---|---|
| Role | Reconnaissance, light bomber, night fighter, trainer, coastal patrol aircraft |
| Manufacturer | Royal Aircraft Factory, Vickers, Bristol |
| Designer | Geoffrey de Havilland, E.T. Busk |
| First flight | February 1912 |
| Introduction | 1912 |
| Retired | 1919 |
| Primary user | Royal Flying Corps |
| Number built | ~ 3,500 |
| Variants | B.E.9, B.E.12 |
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 (Blériot Experimental) was a British single-engine two-seat biplane which was in service with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) from 1912 until the end of World War I. The "Bleriot" in its designation refers to the fact that, like the Bleriot types it was of tractor configuration, with the propeller in front. About 3,500 were built. Initially used as front-line reconnaissance aircraft and light bombers, variants of the type were also used as night fighters. Like many warplanes since the B.E.2 was retained in front line service after it had become obsolete - finally serving as a trainer, communications aircraft and on anti-submarine coastal patrol duties.
While the type was designed and tested at the Royal Aircraft Factory, the vast majority of production aircraft were built under contract by private companies, including well known manufacturers as well as firms that had not previously built aircraft.
The B.E.2 has always been the subject of a good deal of controversy. While it proved fundamentally unsuited to air-to-air combat it had a relatively low accident rate, and its notorious stability actually proved helpful in its artillery observation and aerial photography duties.
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The B.E.2 was designed by Geoffrey de Havilland as a development of his B.E.1, being virtually identical with the earlier aircraft, apart from the replacement of the water-cooled Wolseley of the B.E.1 with a 60 hp (45 kW) air-cooled Renault V-8 engine. It first flew on 1 February 1912 with de Havilland as the test pilot.[1] The Renault proved a much more satisfactory powerplant than the Wolesley, especially after a 70 hp (52 kW) model was fitted in May that year,[2] and on 12 August 1912 it set a British altitude record of 10,560 ft (3,219 m).[3] Other prototypes of the production B.E.2 series included the B.E.5 and the B.E.6, which again essentially only differed from the B.E.2 in the powerplant installed. All of these machines were two-bay tractor biplanes with low-dihedral unstaggered wings incorporating wing warping for roll control. There was no fixed vertical fin.
The prototypes (including the B.E.1) were pressed into squadron service with the pre-war RFC, after testing at the Royal Aircraft Factory. In service, they were all fitted with Renault engines, and all were referred to as B.E.2s.
The first production machines, basically identical with the prototypes, were all powered by Renault engines from the outset, and were designated B.E.2a; the B.E.2b which followed was very similar, but included revised cockpit coamings, affording better protection to the crew. Some B.E.2bs were completed as B.E.2cs, and others had some B.E.2c modifications, such as sump cowlings and "V" undercarriages. At the outbreak of war these early B.E.2s formed part of the equipment of the first three squadrons of the RFC to be sent to France. In fact a B.E.2a of No.2 Squadron RFC was the first aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps to arrive in France after the start of the First World War, on 26 August 1914.
The first B.E.2c went into squadron service just before the outbreak of war, and during 1915 this model replaced the early B.E.2s in the squadrons in France. The new model was the result of research by E.T. Busk and was intended to provide an inherently stable aeroplane. This was considered desirable to allow the crew's full attention to be devoted to reconnaissance duties. The B.E.2c used the same fuselage as the B.E.2b, but was otherwise really a new type, being fitted with new wings of different plan form, increased dihedral, and forward stagger. The tailplane was also completely new. Ailerons replaced the wing warping of the earlier models, and a triangular fin was fitted to the rudder. On later machines this fin was enlarged, to reduce a tendency to swing on takeoff, and to improve spin recovery. After the first few aircraft, production machines were powered by a development of the Renault engine, the RAF 1a, and the twin skid undercarriage was replaced by a plain "V" undercarriage. A streamlined cowling to the sump was also fitted to later models, while a cut-out in the rear of the centre section, perhaps originating as a field modification, marginally improved the observer's field of fire, as well as improving the pilot's view forward over the wing.
The B.E.2d was a dual control version. Otherwise identical to the "c" variant it had full controls in the front cockpit. These necessitated a revised fuel system, and the "d" usually featured a large gravity tank under the centre section. It was heavier than the "c" and had a reduced performance, climb in particular suffering in comparison with the "c". Most B.E.2ds were used as trainers, but a few supplied to Belgium were used operationally. These were re-engined with Hispano engines, apparently with further modifications to the fuel system, and as they could be flown from the front cockpit the occupant of the rear cockpit had a much better field of fire for his gun(s).
The c began to be superseded by the final version, the B.E.2e, nicknamed the "Quirk", in 1916. This variant was again distinguished by completely new wings, braced by a single pair of interplane struts per side (as a "single-bay" biplane), and a set of shorter wingspan lower wing panels. The ailerons, on upper and lower wings, were joined by light struts. The tailplane was again a new unit - being smaller than that of the B.E.2c and d - and the larger, quadrant shaped vertical fin of the late B.E.2c became standard. It was intended to fit a new version of the RAF 1 - the RAF 1b - but in the event this engine did not achieve production status, and the B.E.2e used the same engine as its predecessor, considerably reducing the expected improvement in performance.
Many B.E.2c and B.E.2d aircraft still under construction when the new model entered production were completed with B.E.2e wings - to rationalise the supply of spare parts these aircraft were officially designated as the "B.E.2f" and "B.E.2g".
Some 3,500 B.E.2s were built by over 20 different manufacturers: an exact breakdown between the different models has never been produced, although the B.E.2e was almost certainly the most numerous.
The B.E.9 and the B.E.12 were variants designed to give the B.E.2 an effective forward-firing armament - the B.E.12 (a single seater) went into production and squadron service, but was not a great success.
The early models of the B.E. 2 had already served in the RFC for two years prior to the outbreak of war, and were among the aircraft that arrived with the British Expeditionary Force in 1914. Like all service aircraft of this period, they had been designed at a time when the qualities required by a warplane were largely a matter for conjecture, in the absence of any actual experience of the use of aircraft in warfare. Like most other prewar types they were relegated to second line duties as quickly as the supply of more modern replacements permitted.
The type that replaced the B.E.2a and B.E.2b (as well as the assortment of other types in use at the time) in the reconnaissance squadrons of the RFC in 1915 was the B.E.2c, which had also been designed before the war. The most important difference in the new model was an improvement in stability - a genuinely useful characteristic, especially in aerial photographical work, using the primitive plate cameras of the time, with their relatively long exposures. A suitable engine was not available in sufficient quantities to replace the aircooled Renault - the RAF 1 being essentially just a higher-revving version of the French engine, so that the improvement in the B.E.2c's performance was less than startling. When bombs were to be carried or maximum endurance was required the observer had to be left behind,[4] so it was still necessary to have him sit over the centre of gravity, in front of the pilot. In this awkward position his view was poor, and the degree to which he could handle a camera (or, later, a gun) was hampered by the struts and wires supporting the centre section of the top wing. In practice the pilot of a B.E.2c handled the camera, and the observer, when he was armed at all, had a rather poor field of fire to the rear, having, at best, to shoot back over his pilot's head.
The essential vulnerability of the B.E.2c to fighter attack became plain in late 1915, with the advent of the Fokker Eindecker. This led the British press to dub it "Fokker Fodder", while German pilots nicknamed it kaltes Fleisch ("cold meat"). British ace Albert Ball summed it up as "a bloody awful aeroplane". Unable to cope with such a primitive fighter as the Fokker E.I, it was virtually helpless against the newer German fighters of 1916-17. The aircraft's poor performance against the Fokker, and the failure to improve the aircraft or replace it caused great controversy in England, with Noel Pemberton Billing attacking the B.E.2c and the Royal Aircraft Factory in the House of Commons on 21 March 1916, saying that RFC pilots in France were being "rather murdered than killed".[5] This prompted the setting up of a judicial enquiry, which eventually cleared the factory.[5][6]
In fact, once the threat from the Fokker monoplanes was contained by the availability of allied fighters such as the Airco D.H.2, Nieuport 11 and Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2, B.E.2c losses over the Western Front dropped to an acceptable level, with official records indicating that in the second quarter of 1916, the B.E.2 actually had the lowest loss rates of all the major types then in use.[7] Encouraged by this, the RFC took delivery of large numbers of the BE.2e, which promised improved performance, and combined the stability of the B.E.2c with rather "lighter" controls (i.e. better manoeuvrability). By the spring of 1917, however, conditions on the Western Front had changed again, with the German fighter squadrons re-equipped with better fighters such as the Albatros D.III. It had been planned that by this time B.E.2s in front-line service would have been replaced by Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8s and Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8s, but delivery of these types was initially slower than hoped. This situation culminated in what became known as "Bloody April", with the RFC losing 60 B.E.2s during that month.[8]
An incident illustrating both the poor level of piloting skills with which new RFC pilots were sent to France in 1917 and the level of popularity of the B.E.2e on the Western Front at that time is recorded by Arthur Gould Lee, then a young RFC novice, in his book No Parachute. On 19 May 1917 six pilots newly arrived in France and, still to be allocated to a squadron, were each given a new B.E.2e to ferry between RFC depots at St Omer and Candas. One crashed in transit, three crashed on landing and one went missing (the pilot was killed). Lee, the pilot of the only aircraft to arrive safely, wrote in a letter to his wife:
Fortunately the B.E.2e was by this time already being rapidly replaced on the Western Front by later types, but for far too many young airmen this was more than a year too late.
As early as 1915, the B.E.2c entered service as a pioneer night fighter,[10] being used in attempts to intercept and destroy the German Zeppelin airship raiders. The interceptor version of the B.E.2c was flown as a single-seater with an auxiliary fuel tank on the centre of gravity, in the position of the observer's seat. After an initial lack of success while using darts and small incendiary bombs to attack airships from above, a Lewis gun was mounted to fire incendiary ammunition upwards, at an angle of 45°, to attack the airship from below.[note 1]
The new tactic proved very effective. On the night of 2-3 September 1916, a B.E.2c downed the SL 11, the first German airship to be shot down over Britain after over a year of night raids.[11] This won the pilot, Captain William Leefe Robinson, a Victoria Cross and cash prizes totalling £3,500 put up by a number of individuals.
This was not an isolated victory: five more German airships were destroyed by Home Defence B.E.2c interceptors between October and December 1916. The airship campaign faltered - this rate of attrition could not be sustained, especially in combination with quite high non-combat losses.
The performance of the B.E.2 was inadequate to intercept the Gotha bombers of 1917, but the techniques it pioneered were used by the later night fighters.
From 1917 onwards, the B.E.2 was mostly withdrawn from both the front line and night fighter use. The surviving examples (mainly of the B.E.2e model) continued in use for submarine spotting and as trainers. In spite of the type's stability it was capable of comprehensive (if somewhat stately) aerobatics, and was by no means a bad trainer.
Surviving restored aircraft and reproductions are on display at several museums, including the Imperial War Museum, Duxford; the RAF Museum, Hendon; the Canada Aviation Museum, Ottawa; the Musée de l'Air et de L'Espace, Paris; the Militaire Luchtvaartmuseum, Soesterberg, Netherlands; and the Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, Norway.
B.E.2f serial A1325 has been restored to airworthiness by The Vintage Aviator Ltd in New Zealand,[12] with a B.E.2f reproduction and two reproduction B.E.2cs also well underway by the same firm. The B.E.2f restoration utilises an original RAF1A V8 powerplant, and made its debut at the Classic Fighters Omaka airshow in April, 2009.
The UK's latest reproduction was built at Boscombe Down, Wilts, and completed around 2008.
Data from British Aeroplanes 1914–18[16]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
(With full bomb load usually flown as a single-seater, without machine gun)
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