The first F.B.5 was delivered to
No. 6 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) at
Netheravon in November 1914. On 25 December the first use of the F.B.5 in action took place, when F.B.5 No. 664 took off from Joyce Green airfield to engage a German
Taube monoplane, hitting the Taube (and possibly causing its loss) with
incendiary bullets from a
carbine after the Lewis gun jammed. Eighteen days later, the same flight crew, Second Lieutenants M. R. Chidson and D. C. W. Sanders, flying the first F.B.5 in France, No. 1621, were forced to land behind German lines, and the new plane fell into enemy hands. The F.B.5 began to be seen on the
Western Front when the first reached
No.2 Squadron RFC on 5 February 1915. The type served in ones and twos with several other units before
No. 11 Squadron RFC became the world's first fighter
squadron when, fully equipped with the F.B.5, it deployed to
Villers-Bretonneux, France on 25 July 1915.
Second Lieutenant G.S.M. Insall of 11 Squadron won the
Victoria Cross for an action on 7 November 1915 in which he destroyed a German aircraft while flying a Gunbus.
No. 18 Squadron RFC, which deployed to
France in November 1915, also operated the F.B.5 exclusively. Early aircraft were fitted with British-built Monosoupapes, which initially proved less reliable than French-built engines, while much work was done before a useful gun mounting became available. Although its forward-firing machine gun was a great advantage, the F.B.5 was relatively slow. German pilots often used the superior speed of their aircraft to avoid combat however this was still useful as it cleared the sky of enemy planes. Only the single pilot/observer team of
Lionel Rees and
James McKinley Hargreaves became aces while flying this type. By the end of 1915, the aircraft was outclassed by the
Fokker Eindecker. Examples of the improved Vickers F.B.9 were sent to France, pending sufficient supplies of the
Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b however both the F.B.5 and F.B.9 were fully withdrawn from frontline service by July 1916. Remaining examples, in British service, were mostly used as
trainers. 12 F.B.5s were built under license in Denmark. These were completed in 1916 and remained in service with the
Danish Army Air Corps until their retirement in 1924.
Legacy The
Vickers company persisted with an active experimental program during the
First World War period, including a line of single-seat pusher fighters that culminated in the
Vickers F.B.26 Vampire of 1917–18, but the F.B.5 remained their only significant production aircraft until the
Vickers Vimy bomber, which entered service too late to affect the war. Vickers F.B.5 had a lasting legacy as German pilots continued to refer to British
pusher aircraft as "Vickers-types". Many victories over
D.H.2 or
F.E.2b pushers were reported as destruction of a "Vickers". A flying replica of the F.B.5 Gunbus was completed in 1966 and flew until late 1968. It is now (2014) an exhibit at the
Royal Air Force Museum at
Hendon near London. ==Variants==