by Ray Sturtivant I.S.O. and Gordon Page
In many ways, the Sopwith Camel and the S.E.5 could be regarded as the First World War equivalents of the Spitfire and Hurricane. The S.E.5 (Scout Experimental 5) originated in the second half of 1916, to meet the requirement for a faster and more manoeuvrable single-seat fighter. Designed by the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, it went into large scale production.
The first of three prototypes flew in November 1916, but the second prototype crashed two months later, killing the pilot, and the wing structure was strengthened on later machines.
Production machines began to emerge in March 1917, fitted with 150-hp Hispano-Suiza
engines, the first batch mostly going to No.56 Squadron, working up at London Colney, near
St.Albans before flying to France on 7 April. One of the flight commanders was Captain
Albert Ball VC, who disliked the S.E.5 and much preferred the French Nieuport; he had
several modification made, but lost his life in A4850 when it dived out of cloud on 7 May.
Further deliveries, fitted with the more powerful 200-hp Hispano-Suiza engine, were to
S.E.5a standard, with various other improvements. Production was extensively contracted to
such firms as Martinsyde, Vickers, Whitehead, Austin Motors, The Air Navigation Co and
Wolseley Motors, the latter being also involved in engine production. The Hispano-Suiza
engine showed great promise, but as produced under sub-contract was to be the source of
much trouble and delay.
Once the problems had been ironed out, the S.E.5a justified its reputation as a sturdy fighting aircraft providing a steady gun platform. A total of 77 S.E.5 and 5,148 S.E.5a were built, being flown by many famous pilots of the day and scoring many victories. Some fifteen Western Front squadrons were eventually fully equipped with the type, these being Nos.1, 24, 29, 32, 40, 41, 56, 60, 64, 68 (2 AFC), 74, 84, 85, 92 and 94. Nos.87, 89 and 93 Squadrons also flew the type in the UK. Small numbers were tried somewhat unsuccessfully for Home Defence work against Zeppelins and Gotha bombers and quite a number were earmarked for training purposes. A few were sent to the Middle East, and the type was also supplied to the United States Army Air Service though never flown operationally by them.
It was regarded as obsolescent soon after the Armistice, but a number continued in service post-war, including some with the anti-Bolshevik forces in Russia. Both the S.E.5a and the Americanised SE-5E were flown by the U.S. Army Air Service for a time in the early post-war years. Numbers were presented to overseas countries as Commonwealth Gift aircraft, and others were sold either to foreign air forces or for civil use. Of the latter, quite a few proved
useful for skywriting work, some of these finding their way to the USA and others to
Germany.
Details of the service of the S.E.5 and S.E.5A are backed by extensive tables of individual histories including the men who flew the type, their victories and losses. Three pages of general arrangement drawings, a cut-away drawing and eight pages of colour drawings showing various markings carried by the type should be useful to modellers.
The front cover painting by Dugald Cameron depicts S.E.5a C5323 over Turnberry in 1918.
A4 format with hard covers, 176 pages, 263 photographs.
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ISBN 0-85130-246-7
First Published 1996 by
Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd, 12 Lonsdale Gardens, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1PA, England.
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