The Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.3 (also known as the A.E.1 ("Armed Experimental") was a British experimental single-engined pusher biplane built prior to the First World War. It was intended to be fitted with a shell-firing gun, but was quickly abandoned, being found to be structurally unsound.
| F.E.3 | |
|---|---|
| |
| Role | Experimental armed aircraft |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Royal Aircraft Factory |
| First flight | 1913 |
| Status | Prototype |
| Number built | 1 |
Design and development
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In 1913, the Royal Aircraft Factory designed an experimental armed pusher biplane, the F.E.3 ("Farman" or "Fighting" Experimental), with the alternative designation A.E.1 ("Armed Experimental"). The F.E.3 was to carry a Coventry Ordnance Works 1½ lb shell-firing quick loading gun. In order to reduce the drag associated with the pusher layout favoured for gun-carrying aircraft, the tail was carried on a single tubular tailboom connected by bearings to the four-bladed propeller, with bracing wires running to the wings and undercarriage. The crew of two, gunner and pilot, sat in tandem in a wood and metal nacelle. The aircraft was powered by a single water-cooled Chenu inline engine mounted in the nose of the nacelle, connected to a long shaft running under the cockpit which drove the propeller using a chain drive. The gun was to fire through the cooling intake for the engine.[1][2]
It flew in the summer of 1913, but testing was stopped after the aircraft's propeller broke in flight resulting in a forced landing. Flight testing did not resume, as it was realised that the tailboom was not strong enough to allow safe flying.[3] Although the F.E.3 did not fly again, the gun installation was test fired with the aircraft suspended from a hangar roof, showing that recoil loads were not excessive.[4]
Specifications
editData from The Royal Aircraft Factory[4]
General characteristics
- Crew: 2
- Length: 29 ft 3 in (8.92 m)
- Wingspan: 40 ft 0 in (12.19 m)
- Height: 11 ft 3 in (3.43 m)
- Wing area: 436.5 sq ft (40.55 m2)
- Empty weight: 1,400 lb (635 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 2,080 lb (943 kg)
- Powerplant: 1 × Chenu water-cooled inline engine, 100 hp (75 kW)
- Propellers: 4-bladed
Performance
- Maximum speed: 75 mph (121 km/h, 65 kn) at sea level
- Service ceiling: 5,000 ft (1,500 m)
- Rate of climb: 350 ft/min (1.8 m/s)
Notes
editReferences
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- Hare, Paul R. The Royal Aircraft Factory. London:Putnam, 1990. ISBN 0-85177-843-7.
- Mason, Francis K. The British Fighter Since 1912. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1992. ISBN 1-55750-082-7.
- O'Gorman, Mervyn, "The Design and Construction of Different Types of Aeroplanes: Gun-carrying Aeroplanes", pp. 267–268 of Technical Report of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics for the Year 1912–13, London: HMSO, 1919.