Vintage Wings - Royal Air Factory S.E.2 - 1913

*** Vintage Wings ***

Royal Air Factory S.E.2 - 1913

In 1912 a team at the Royal Aircraft Factory, led by Geoffrey de Havilland, started the design of a single seat fast reconnaissance aircraft, the first aircraft specifically designed for this role.
It had a wooden monocoque circular section fuselage, and lateral control was by wing warping. It was powered by a two-row, 14-cylinder Gnome rotary engine rated at 100 hp. and was known as B.S.1.
It flown for the first time early in 1913, demonstrating excellent performance, but on 27 March 1913 de Havilland crashed the B.S.1, breaking his jaw and badly damaging the aircraft.
Following this accident, it was rebuilt, with an 80 hp single-row Gnome and new control surfaces. While the rebuilt aircraft was initially designated B.S.2, it was soon redesignated S.E.2 (for Scout Experimental). It was flown in this form by de Havilland in October 1913.
In April 1914 the monocoque rear fuselage, which had been criticised as too expensive for mass production, was replaced by a conventional wood and fabric structure.
By the time the rebuilt version was completed, the First World War had broken out, and the S.E.2 was sent to join No. 3 Squadron, fitted with an improvised armament of a pair of rifles mounted on the side of the fuselage. The plane proved to be one of the fastest aircraft in the early months of the war, and remained in use until March 1915, when it was damaged by an exploding bomb.