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Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 was a British single-engine tractor two-seat biplane which was in service with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) from 1912 until the end of World War I. About 3,500 were built. Initially used as front-line reconnaissance aircraft and light bombers; variants of the type were also used as night fighters. Like many warplanes since, the B.E.2 was retained in front-line service long after it had become obsolete, for want of a suitable replacement. After its belated withdrawal it finally served as a trainer, communications aircraft and on anti-submarine coastal patrol duties. While the type was designed and developed by the Royal Aircraft Factory, the majority of production aircraft were built under contract by private companies, including well known manufacturers as well as firms that had not previously built aircraft. The B.E.2 has always been the subject of a good deal of controversy. While it proved fundamentally unsuited to air-to-air combat it had a relatively low accident rate, and its notorious stability actually proved helpful in its artillery observation and aerial photography duties. ==Background== The B.E.2 was one of the first aircraft designed at what was then called the Royal Balloon Factory (renamed the Royal Aircraft Factory in 1912) under the direction of Mervyn O'Gorman. Its designation followed the system devised by O'Gorman which classified aircraft by their layout: B.E. stood for Blériot Experimental, and was used for aircraft of tractor configuration (although in the event all the B.E. types were biplanes rather than the monoplanes typical of the Bleriot company). The official agenda of the Balloon Factory was research into aircraft design, but the construction of actual aircraft was not officially sanctioned. O'Gorman got around this contradiction by using the factory's secondary responsibility to repair and maintain aircraft belonging to the Royal Flying Corps: existing aircraft needing major repairs were nominally reconstructed but actually transformed into new designs, generally retaining little except the engine.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2」の詳細全文を読む
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