Model of the month Juni 2017 - 1. Bristol M.1 Monoplane Scout
In 1916 the UK was thinking about getting rid of th „Fokker pest“, the Fokker E-fighters of the Germans. The idea was to design a new agile single seater pursuit plane. In the past years the German Fokkers had been so succsessful that hardly an allied plane was able to cross the German front lines. This was not only due to the maneuverbility of the Fokker E, but also
due to the fact that the machine guns of the plane fired through the orbit of the propeller. In addition those pioneer pilots like Boelke and Immelmann developed and executed new air combat tactics.
The engineer Barnwell of the British company Bristol designed a single seater monoplane powered by an air-cooled rotary engine built by the Clerget company. In the beginning these engines had 110 hp, later on 130 hp. The engine had a cicular sheathing and a spinner was mounted on the hub. The right hand upper spar carried a 7.7mm Vickers machine gun.
As early as 1916 the first two planes were tested. But the landing speed of 79 km/h was considered too high so that they did not deploy the plane on French airfields
.
Besides the two prototypes supposedly 125 planes were built, seven of them were exported to Chile. All the other planes served in different outfits, there is no information about their combat achievments. One of the planes took part in air races in Australia in 1920.
Technical data:
wingspan 9.37 m; length 6.24 m; height 2.37 m; wing area 13.47 m2; weight empty 406 kg; take-off weight 611 kg;
power plant: one 82 kW/110 hp Le Rhone 9 cylinder air-cooled radial engine
performance: maximum speed 209 km/h; service ceiling 6.1 km; endurance 1:45 h;