The Bristol S.S.A., (Single-Seat Armoured), was an armoured

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

built at Bristol in 1914 to fulfill a French government order.

Design and development

At the request of the French government,

Henri Coanda Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry (given name), Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List_of_rulers_named_Henry#France, List of rulers named Henry ...

designed a single-seat armoured biplane. The forward fuselage was built as a monocoque shell built up from sheet steel, colloquially known as 'The Bath', at the

Filton Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church d ...

works. The armoured shell enclosed the engine, fuel tank, oil tank and cockpit, with the pilot's seat being formed from the shaped rear bulkhead. The

Clerget 7Z The Clerget 7Z was a seven-cylinder rotary aircraft engine of the World War I era designed by Pierre Clerget. First appearing in 1911 it was nominally rated at 80 horsepower (60 kW). 347 examples were jointly built in Britain by Gordon Watn ...

was fully cowled with sheet steel and drove a two-bladed propeller which had a large sheet steel spinner, perforated to allow cooling air to the rotary engine, and an internal sheet steel cone preventing bullet entry through the cooling holes. Staggered biplane main-planes were mounted as far forward as possible to ensure that the centre of pressure maintained the correct position relative to the

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

. The lower main-planes were attached to a framework, leaving a gap between wing root and fuselage. The undercarriage consists of two wheels mounted on struts, with long skids which extended rearwards removing the need for a tail-skid. A feature of the undercarriage requested by the French customer was castering main-wheels allowing cross-wind landings. Attached to the rear end of the armoured tub was a slender rear fuselage which ended with a large balanced rudder, tailplane and elevator.

Operational history

The sole prototype, given the serial 'No.219', was first flown at

Larkhill Larkhill is a garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England. It lies about west of the centre of Durrington village and north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. It is about north of Salisbury. The settlement ...

on 8 May 1914 with a temporary

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

spinner due to vibration with the steel assembly. The S.S.A. Also flew at

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but was damaged in a heavy landing. After repairs the S.S.A. Was flown again on 25 June 1914 at Filton, by

Harry Busteed Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

, but broke an undercarriage bracing wire on landing. Despite the damage and without being repaired, the S.S.A. was delivered to the French customer at the La Brayelle,

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, D ...

, works of Breguet for repair on 3 July 1914. When the Douai factory was forced to be evacuated to Villacoublay by the

German invasion of France France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans. * the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...

at the start of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the S.S.A. was not taken along, and no further records of the S.S.A. exists.Bruce 1979, p. 97.

Specifications (S.S.A.)

Notes

References

* * {{Bristol aircraft 1910s British fighter aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes SSA Aircraft first flown in 1914