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The Bristol M.1 Monoplane Scout was a British monoplane fighter of the First World War. ==Development== In 1916, Frank Barnwell, chief designer of Bristol Aeroplane Company, realising that the performance of existing fighter aircraft was inadequate, designed a new single-seat tractor monoplane fighter as a private venture, the Bristol M.1.〔Barnes 1964, p. 120.〕〔Bruce 1982, p. 180.〕 The first prototype, the M.1A made its maiden flight on 14 July 1916.〔Barnes 1964, p. 121.〕 It was of conventional wood and fabric construction, with a carefully streamlined circular cross-section fuselage. The wing was shoulder mounted and was braced with flying wires running from the wing to the lower fuselage and landing wires from the wings to a cabane made of two semi-circular steel tube hoops positioned over the pilot's cockpit. A Clerget rotary engine drove a two-bladed propeller fitted with a large hemispherical spinner to reduce drag.〔Bruce 1965, p. 110.〕〔Barnes 1964, pp. 120–121.〕 It was purchased by the War Office for evaluation, and demonstrated impressive performance during official testing, reaching a speed of and climbing to in 8 minutes 30 seconds, although the forward and downward view was criticised by test pilots.〔〔 The War Office ordered four modified aircraft, designated M.1B, in October 1916. These differed from the first prototype in having a more conventional cabane consisting of a pyramid of four straight steel struts, a large clear-view cut-out panel in the starboard wing root to give improved view for landing and a single .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun mounted on the port wing root.〔Barnes 1964, p. 121.〕〔Bruce 1965, p. 111.〕 Despite excellent performance - it had a maximum speed some 30-50 mph (50–80 km/h) higher than any of the contemporary German Fokker ''Eindecker'' and French Morane-Saulnier N monoplanes - it was rejected by the Air Ministry for service on the Western Front, ostensibly because its landing speed of 49 mph was considered too high for small French airfields, but more likely because of a widespread belief that monoplane aircraft were inherently unsafe in combat. The RFC had imposed a ban on monoplanes after the crash of one of the Bristol-Coanda Monoplanes on 10 September 1912, and despite the subsequent 1913 Monoplane Committee clearing the design type there persisted a deep-rooted suspicion of monoplanes. This suspicion may also have been re-inforced by the RFC's underwhelming experience with various Morane-Saulnier monoplanes, especially the Morane-Saulnier N, which was also criticised for its high landing speed. Nevertheless, a production order for 125 aircraft was placed on 3 August 1917. Designated M.1C, this version was fitted with a Le Rhône rotary engine and had a Vickers machine gun centrally-mounted in front of the pilot. A single M.1, registered ''G-EAVP'' was rebuilt as a high-speed testbed for the Bristol Lucifer three cylinder radial engine. This aircraft was designated the M.1D. 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「Bristol M.1」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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