The Westland Wagtail was a prototype

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

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 ...

. A single-engined

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...

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 ...

, the Wagtail was a failure owing to the unreliability of its engine, only five being built.

Development and design

The Westland Wagtail was designed by

Westland Aircraft Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. D ...

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somer ...

in 1917 to meet the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Specification IA for a light fighter with superior performance to the

Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the b ...

. Westland's design team, led by Robert Bruce, the Company's manager and Arthur Davenport, Chief Draughtsman, came up with a design for a small single bay

, powered (like the other competitors for the Specification, the

BAT Bantam The BAT F.K.23 Bantam was a British single-seat fighter biplane produced by British Aerial Transport Company Limited of London during World War I. Design and development Frederick Koolhoven's first design for the British Aerial Transport Comp ...

and the

Sopwith Snail The Sopwith 8F.1 Snail was a prototype British Fighter aircraft of the First World War. It was unsuccessful, being abandoned due to an unreliable engine. Development and design The Sopwith 8F.1 Snail was designed by Herbert Smith of Sopwith A ...

) by the 170 hp (127 kW)

ABC Wasp The ABC Wasp was an experimental 170 hp (127 kW) seven-cylinder radial engine designed by the noted British engineer Granville Bradshaw, and primarily built by ABC Motors Limited. An order for twelve experimental ABC Wasp engines wa ...

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...

. The Wagtail was of conventional wood and fabric construction, with the upper wing centre-section having a large cut-out to improve the pilot's view, and carrying an armament of two

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

s mounted over the nose.Bruce 1969, pp.132–133.Mason 1992, pp.133–134.James 1991, pp.74–76. An order for six prototypes was placed in February 1918, (although the last two were later cancelled) with the first airframe being used for structural tests and not flown.Mason 1992, p.134. Delays in delivery of engines delayed flight testing of the Wagtail, with the first to fly, serial number ''C4291'', flying in April 1918, two months after the airframe was complete. Testing showed that handling of the Wagtail was good, but also quickly showed that the Wasp was unreliable.James 1991, pp.76–77. Although the Wagtail proved the best of the three Wasp-engined fighters tested, the Wasp was officially abandoned in October 1918, which together with the end of the war on 11 November, resulted in it not being adopted as a fighter.Bruce 1969, p.135. Despite this, two further Wagtails were ordered in 1920, as testbeds for the new 150 hp (112 kW)

Armstrong Siddeley Lynx The Armstrong Siddeley Lynx is a British seven-cylinder aero engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. Testing began in 1920 and 6,000 had been produced by 1939. In Italy Alfa Romeo built a licensed version of this engine named the Alfa Romeo ...

radial. These two aircraft, which had a shorter nose to compensate for the heavier engine, were delivered in 1921 and remained in use until August 1922.James 1991, p.79.

Specifications

References

*Bruce, J.M. ''British Aeroplanes 1914–18''. London:Putnam, 1957. *Bruce, J.M. ''War Planes of the First World War: Fighters Volume One''. London:Macdonald, 1969. . *James, Derek N. ''Westland Aircraft since 1915''. London:Putnam, 1991. . *Mason, Francis K. ''The British Fighter since 1912''. Annapolis, USA:Naval Institute Press, 1992. .

External links

Local Lights:The Westland Wagtail
PFA : The Bristol Strutter.

AgustaWestland. {{Westland aircraft 1910s British fighter aircraft

Wagtail Wagtails are a group of passerine birds that form the genus ''Motacilla'' in the family Motacillidae. The forest wagtail belongs to the monotypic genus ''Dendronanthus'' which is closely related to ''Motacilla'' and sometimes included therein. ...

Aircraft first flown in 1918

Development and design

Specifications

See also

References

External links