The Vickers E.F.B.7 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 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 twin-engined biplane, the E.F.B.7 was unsuccessful, only one being built.

Development and design

In August 1914, following the outbreak of the

, the British pioneer aircraft designer Howard Flanders was hired by

Vickers Limited Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entir ...

as an aircraft designer, with his first job to design a fighting aircraft to carry a Vickers 1 pounder (37 mm) cannon.Bruce 1969, p. 81. (This was not the well-known

pom-pom A pom-pom – also spelled pom-pon, pompom or pompon – is a decorative ball or tuft of fibrous material. The term may refer to large tufts used by cheerleaders, or a small, tighter ball attached to the top of a hat, also known as a ...

, but a smaller and lighter

long recoil Recoil operation is an operating mechanism used to implement locked breech, autoloading firearms. Recoil operated firearms use the energy of recoil to cycle the action, as opposed to gas operation or blowback operation using the pressure of the ...

cannon firing less powerful ammunition). Flanders produced a twin-engined development of his earlier Flanders B.2 single-engined biplane, the E.F.B.7 (Experimental Fighting Biplane No.7). The E.F.B.7 was a two-bay biplane with a steel-tube structure with plywood and fabric covering. It had un-staggered wings, with the upper wings of much greater (i.e. 22 ft (6.7 m)) span than the lower ones. It was powered by two

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 commo ...

Gnome Monosoupape The ''Monosoupape'' (French for single-valve), was a rotary engine design first introduced in 1913 by Gnome Engine Company (renamed Gnome et Rhône in 1915). It used a clever arrangement of internal transfer ports and a single pushrod-operated e ...

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...

s mounted between the wings. The gunner sat in a large cockpit in the nose of the aircraft, with a rotating mount for the cannon and an armoured floor claimed to be bulletproof, while the pilot sat in a cockpit behind the wings, so that the pilot and gunner could not communicate. The E.F.B.7 first flew in August 1915, being passed to the

Central Flying School The Central Flying School (CFS) is the Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of military flying instructors. Established in 1912 at the Upavon Aerodrome, it is the longest existing flying training school. The school was based at ...

for testing. Sometime early in its career, it was fitted with large cowlings to catch oil from the engines. An order for a further twelve aircraft was placed on 20 August 1915, which were to have a modified fuselage, allowing the pilot to sit closer to the gunner and owing to a shortage of Monosoupapes, powered by two 80 hp (60 kW)

Renault 80 hp The Renault 80 hp, or Type WS in British service, was a V-8 aero engine that first ran in 1914. The engine was manufactured in Britain by Renault Limited of West Brompton, London between August 1914 and December 1918, seven other companie ...

air-cooled

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

s. The first prototype was modified to this form, becoming the E.F.B.7A. Performance with these less powerful engines was much poorer and the production orders were cancelled on 16 February 1916 before any more were completed.Bruce 1969, pp. 84–85.

Specifications (E.F.B.7)

Notes

References

* Andrews, C. F., and Morgan, E.B. ''Vickers Aircraft since 1908''. London: Putnam, Second edition, 1988. . * Bruce, J. M. ''War Planes of the First World War: Volume Three, Fighters''. London: Macdonald, 1969. . * Mason, Francis K. ''The British Fighter since 1912''. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1992. . * Williams, Anthony G., and Gustin, Emmanuel. ''Flying Guns: World War I and its Aftermath 1914–32''. Ramsbury, UK: Airlife, 2003. . {{Vickers aircraft 1910s British fighter aircraft E.F.B.7 Military aircraft of World War I Rotary-engined aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1915

Development and design

Specifications (E.F.B.7)

See also

Notes

References