Origins In late 1915, the
Royal Flying Corps (RFC) needed a new
aerial reconnaissance and
artillery spotting aircraft to replace the pre-war Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c. Among other attributes and performance requirements, emphasis was placed upon the ability to defend itself in aerial combat. Several new types were developed; the
Royal Aircraft Factory offered its
R.E.8 design and
Armstrong Whitworth produced the design that eventually emerged as the
F.K.8. Both designs had the
fuselage mounted between the wings, with a gap between the lower
longerons and the wing, along with a substantial part of the fin beneath the fuselage. These features were intended to improve the field of fire for the observer; the positioning of the fuselage also resulted in the upper wing obscuring less of the pilot's field of view. It was fitted with B.E.2d wings (Bristol were major contractors for the type) to save time; its lower wings were attached to an open wing-anchorage frame and had end-plates at the
wing roots. On 25 October 1916, the second prototype was completed, powered by a Hispano-Suiza engine and differing from the first prototype in its tail-skid, which was integrated into the base of the
rudder. Between 16 and 18 October 1916, the type underwent its official trials at the
Central Flying School,
Upavon, during which it was tested with a four-bladed propeller and a two-bladed propeller. By the time of its arrival at the experimental armament station at
Orfordness it had also been fitted with a
Scarff ring mounting over the rear cockpit and an Aldis
optical sight. Only 52 F.2A aircraft were manufactured before production began of the definitive model, the
F.2B (retrospectively named Bristol
Type 14), which first flew on 25 October 1916. The first 150 or so F.2Bs were powered by either the Falcon I or Falcon II engine but the remainder were equipped with the 275 hp (205 kW) Falcon III. The additional power gave the F.2B a advantage in level speed over the F.2A, while it was three minutes faster in a climb to .
Armament The Bristol F.2 Fighter was armed in what had by then become standard for a British two-seater military aircraft: one
synchronised fixed, forward-firing
.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun (in this case mounted under the cowling to avoid freezing) and a .303 in (7.7 mm)
Lewis Gun on a Scarff ring over the observer's rear cockpit. The F.2B often carried a second Lewis gun on the rear cockpit mounting, although observers found the weight of the twin Lewis gun mounting difficult to handle in the high altitudes at which combat increasingly took place in the last year of the war, many preferring one gun. Attempts were made to add a forward-firing Lewis gun on a
Foster mounting or similar on the upper wing either instead of (or with) the Vickers gun. Among other problems this caused interference with the pilot's compass, which was mounted on the trailing edge of the upper wing: to minimise this effect the Lewis gun was offset to starboard.
Alternative engines Rolls-Royce aero engines of all types were in short supply, which frustrated plans to increase production to enable the F.2B to become the standard British two-seater, replacing the R.E.8 and F.K.8. Efforts were made to find an available alternative
powerplant that was both reliable and sufficiently powerful. The
Type 16 was fitted with a 200 hp (150 kW) Hispano-Suiza engine. This worked better than the Arab but there was already a severe shortage of Hispano-Suizas for other types, such as the
S.E.5a and the
Sopwith Dolphin. The 300 hp (220 kW) version of the Hispano-Suiza, suggested for the
Type 17, was not available in quantity before the end of the war. Other engines tried or suggested for the F.2B were the 200 hp (150 kW)
RAF 4d, the 180 hp (130 kW)
Wolseley Viper and the 230 hp (170 kW)
Siddeley Puma. Trials of the Puma engine were carried out in February 1918; it was found to confer marginally better performance than the Hispano-Suiza and Arab engines but was difficult to install and unreliable. In September 1918, trials of a high-compression model of the Puma were carried out but it was found to have no significant performance benefit and this avenue was not pursued. On 1 August 1917, General
John Pershing, the commander of the
American Expeditionary Forces on the
Western Front, issued his personal recommendation for the Bristol Fighter to be built in the United States, leading to plans for the development and production of an American version of the Fighter by the United States Army Engineering Division. According to Bruce, misdirections attributed to Major E. J. Hall of the U.S. Signals Corps had led to roughly 1,400 production drawings produced by Curtiss being rendered obsolete. The reputation of the type was also tarnished by three early crashes, although one had been attributed to pilot error and the other two to faulty workmanship. Only 27 O-1s were completed. Efforts to change the engine of American-built Bristol Fighters to the more suitable Liberty 8 or the Wright-Hisso came up against political as well as technical problems. By July 1918, the only specimen of the American-built Hispano-Suiza engine had been installed in a Fighter; the combination soon gained the favour of the U.S. Air Board, which suggested to Curtiss that all work on the 400 hp Liberty L-12 version of the aircraft be abandoned in favour of the Hispano-Suiza version. According to Bruce, despite substantial efforts to differentiate and modify the aircraft's design, none of the American-built Fighters performed any better than the original Bristol. While some of the modified versions of the F.2 were used in the US, no American-built Bristol Fighters reached the
American Expeditionary Forces in France.
Postwar developments Postwar developments of the F.2B included the
F.2B Mk II, a two-seat army co-operation biplane, fitted with desert equipment and a tropical cooling system, which first flew in December 1919, of which 435 were built. The
Type 96 Fighter Mk III and
Type 96A Fighter Mk VI were structurally strengthened aircraft, of which 50 were built in 1926–1927. Surplus F.2Bs were modified for civilian use. The
Bristol Tourer was an F.2B fitted with a Siddeley Puma engine in place of the Falcon and with canopies over the cockpits; The Tourer had a maximum speed of . ==Operational history==