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The Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8 was a British single-seat fighter of the First World War designed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. Although a clean and well designed little aeroplane for a pusher, it could not escape the drag penalty imposed by its tail structure and was no match for the Albatros fighters of late 1916. ==Design and development== With the D.H.2, the F.E.8 was one of the first so-called "scout" aircraft designed from the outset as a single-seat fighter. In the absence of a synchronization gear to provide a forward firing machine gun for a tractor scout such as the S.E. 2, it was given a pusher layout. On the whole the new design, produced by a team led by John Kenworthy followed the conventional "Farman" layout, as did the competing Airco DH.2 designed by Geoffrey de Havilland, who had also previously worked at the Royal Aircraft Factory - but it had some novel features.〔Hare 1990, p.87.〕 The nacelle was, most unusually for the time, an all-metal structure – being framed in steel tube and covered with duralumin. The prototypes were fitted with large streamlined spinners on the propellers, although these were removed, and the production F.E.8s were built without them. The wings had a narrow chord, giving them a high aspect ratio. They featured dihedral outboard of the wide centre section, and the ailerons were of unusually long span - occupying the entire wing trailing edge outboard of the tail booms. The booms themselves were attached to the main spar of the tailplane, rather than the rudder post, giving them taper in side elevation rather than in plan, as more usual in a "Farman" style pusher. This allowed the fitting of a variable incidence tailplane, although this was not adjustable in flight, but only on the ground. A single 100 hp (75 kW) Gnome 9 "Type B2" ''Monosoupape'' rotary engine driving a four-bladed propeller powered the aircraft,〔Hare 1990, p. 227.〕 with the capability of taking the lower-powered Le Rhône 9C 80 hp, nine-cylinder rotary. The new aircraft made its maiden flight on 15 October 1915, flown by Frank Gooden, who was happy with the aircraft's handling. The aircraft was then armed with a single Lewis gun, which was originally fitted on a movable mount within the nose of the nacelle, with the machine gun's breech almost at the pilot's feet. This proved awkward in practice, and in production machines the gun was mounted directly in front of the pilot, in the manner of the D.H.2. Other changes required before the aircraft entered production included extra fuel to counter criticism from Hugh Trenchard, commander of the Royal Flying Corps in France, that the F.E.8's endurance was too short.〔Hare 1990, p. 228.〕 The new fighter was not a great improvement on the D.H.2 – although a little faster it was rather less manoeverable. It was nonetheless ordered into production from Darracq Motors and Vickers. Neither manufacturer delivered their F.E.8s particularly quickly, so that the type ended up reaching the front in numbers six months later than the D.H.2.〔Cheesman 1960, p. 46.〕 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 F.E.8」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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