The Supermarine P.B.31E Nighthawk was a British aircraft of the First World War and the first project of the Pemberton-Billing operation after it became

Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd. Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer that is most famous for producing the Supermarine Spitfire, Spitfire fighter plane during World War II as well as a range of seaplanes and flying boats, and a series of Jet engine, jet-powered figh ...

It was an anti-

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

night fighter A night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time after the Second World War) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used i ...

operated by a crew of three to five and had a planned flight endurance of 9–18 hours. The prototype flew in February 1917 with Clifford Prodger at the controls. It proved to not meet the promised specification and no more were built.

Design and development

The Nighthawk had six-bay swept quadraplane wings and a

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

tailplane with twin fins and rudders. The fuselage filled the gap between the second and third wings; the cockpit, which carried up to the top wing "turret", was enclosed and heated. Along with the intended long endurance, it was suggested it would be able to patrol at low speeds and await the Zeppelin. For armament, it had a trainable nose-mounted

searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...

, a 1½-pounder (37 mm)

Davis gun The Davis gun was the first true recoilless gun developed and taken into service. It was developed by Commander Cleland Davis of the United States Navy in 1910, just prior to World War I. Development Davis' design connected two guns back to bac ...

mounted above the top wing with 20 shells, and two .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis guns. Power for the searchlight was provided by an independent petrol engine-driven generator set made by

ABC Motors ABC Motors Limited ("All British (Engine) Company") of Hersham, Surrey, England was a manufacturer of cars, aircraft, motor scooters, and engines for road and air. Established by Ronald Charteris in Hersham, Surrey in 1912, its chief designer ...

, possibly the first instance of a recognisable airborne

auxiliary power unit An auxiliary power unit (APU) is a device on a vehicle that provides energy for functions other than propulsion. They are commonly found on large aircraft and naval ships as well as some large land vehicles. Aircraft APUs generally produce 115&n ...

.Andrews and Morgan 1987, p. 21.

Operational history

Although touted as being able to reach , the P.B.31E prototype only managed at and took an hour to climb to , which was totally inadequate for intercepting Zeppelins.Bruce 1969, p. 69. German airships, such as P, or R Class military Zeppelins were themselves capable of top speeds of around . Furthermore, given the

Anzani Anzani was an engine manufacturer founded by the Italian Alessandro Anzani (1877–1956), which produced proprietary engines for aircraft, cars, boats, and motorcycles in factories in Britain, France and Italy. Overview From his native Italy, An ...

engine's reputation for unreliability and overheating, it is unlikely that the aircraft would have delivered the advertised endurance.

Surviving relics

One of the two propellers of the Nighthawk is preserved in

Solent Sky Solent Sky is an aviation museum in Southampton, Hampshire, previously known as Southampton Hall of Aviation. It depicts the history of aviation in Southampton, the Solent area and Hampshire. There is special focus on the Supermarine aircraft c ...

, an aviation museum in Southampton, England.

Specifications (prototype)

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. ''Supermarine Aircraft since 1914.'' London: Putnam, 1987. . * Bruce, J.M. ''Warplanes of the First World War, Volume Three: Fighters.'' London: Macdonald, 1969. . * Mason, Francis K. ''The British Fighter since 1912.'' Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1992. . {{Supermarine aircraft Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United Kingdom 1910s British fighter aircraft Quadruplanes

Nighthawk The nighthawk is a nocturnal bird of the subfamily Chordeilinae, within the nightjar family, Caprimulgidae, native to the western hemisphere. The term "nighthawk", first recorded in the King James Bible of 1611, was originally a local name i ...

Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1917

Design and development

Operational history

Surviving relics

Specifications (prototype)

See also

References