R.A.F. S.E.5

The R.A.F. S.E.5 was a plane built around an engine. The 150hp Hispano-Suiza vee-eight showed great promise in 1915 due to a high power-to-weight ratio, and the Royal Aircraft Factory set about developing a fighter to use it. The S.E.5 was also designed to be a fairly stable plane since so many British pilots of the period were under-trained and liable to have an edgy plane like the Sopwith Camel turn against them. The earliest S.E.5s featured wider, sharp-raked wings, but an early crash led to an adjustment in span and shape that was applied to all subsequent models. A gravity fuel tank set atop the upper wing slightly to port. Early planes had the pilot enclosed in a glass wrap-around "greenhouse", but later planes and field modifications replaced it with a simple windscreen.

&#x2116; 56 Squadron was the first to take the plane to France in April, 1917. The plane was found to have great strength. It would find greater fame when the engine was upgraded with the 200hp geared Hispano-Suiza in the R.A.F. S.E.5a.

By December 1917 the original batch of S.E.5s had likely either been retired or had been re-engined as S.E.5a's.

Card Links

 * Knight
 * Knight
 * 60 Sqn - Molesworth
 * 60 Sqn - Soden
 * 74 Sqn - Caldwell
 * 74 Sqn - Caldwell

Aircraft Chart

1:144 Scale

 * Shapeways: Decapod, Reduced Aircraft Factory

1:285/6mm/1:288 Scale

 * Shapeways: Reduced Aircraft Factory