Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Single-seat fighter monoplane

Power Plant:

One 82 kw (110 hp) Le Rhone rotary engine

(VH-UQI) One 90-kw (120 hp) de Havilland Gipsy 2 four-cylinder in-line air-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

The Bristol M.1C, designed by Captain Frank S Barnwell in 1916, was a breakaway from contemporary design standards because, as a wire-braced monoplane, it represented an attempt to produce an aerodynamically clean airframe. In spite of the low power, the result was a fast and highly manoeuvrable aircraft. However, prejudice at the time against monoplanes led to the construction of only 125 examples. With availability of ex-military machines in 1919, seven were converted for civil use, five in the United Kingdom and two in Australia.

The M.1C was initially known as the M.1A, the prototype being built in 1916 and receiving the serial A5138. It had an 82 kw (110 hp) Clerget rotary engine with a large rounded spinner. The fuselage was a wire-braced box girder and was faired by means of formers and stringers to a circular cross-section. The wings were of wood and were fabric covered, having swept back leading-edges. On trials it reached 212 km/h (132 mph). A modified variant known as the M.1B later appeared and four were built (serials A5139 to A5142). One was fitted with a 112kw (150 hp) AR engine (Admiralty Rotary) which later became known as the Bentley Rotary.

Some 125 were built (serials C4901 to C5025) of which 35 were to see combat service in Macedonia and the Middle East , mainly being used to attack ground targets. The remainder were used for training duties. Six were delivered to the Chilean Air Force in 1917 and one was flown by Lieutenant Godoy to make the first aerial crossing of the Andes mountains on 12 December 1918.

It would appear two Bristol M.1Cs were brought to Australia by Captain Harry Butler, the well known South-Australian aviator from Minlaton, SA. G-AUCH (c/n 2819) and an Avro 504K (G-AUCG) arrived on 23 July 1919, both aircraft being fitted with the 82 kw (110 hp) Le Rhone rotary engine. The first Bristol was painted overall red with ‘Red Devil’ written in white on the side of the nose. It carried RAF roundels and the serial number C5001. Although the civil registration G-AUCH was allotted, it was never actually painted on the aircraft, although the machine was registered to Harry J Butler and H A Kauper trading as the Harry J Butler & Kauper Aviation Company Ltd of Northfield, SA on 28 June 1921.

On 6 August 1919 Butler flew the machine to Minlaton where he performed an aerobatic display. He returned to Adelaide, SA five days later with two small bags (18 kg – 40 lb) of mail. This was the first airmail service in South Australia and was the first overwater crossing by air in that region. The journey covered 108 km (67 miles) and took 27 minutes to cross the Gulf.

The aircraft was subsequently used to give a number of aerobatic displays, one in particular being at Unley Oval on 23 August 1919. Shortly thereafter Butler launched the first Australian Peace Loan by dropping leaflets over Adelaide. On 8 September 1920 he flew in the first post-war air race, known as the Peace Loan Aerial Derby, and won the event.

On 11 January 1922, whilst flying the Avro 504K performing a passenger flight, Butler crashed into a wheat field at Minlaton and received serious head injuries. The passenger walked away unscathed. At about this time Butler founded another business, the Harry Butler Aviation & Motor Engineering Garage in partnership with a Mr Nicolson, backed by the Egerton-Warburton family. Butler never fully recovered from his injuries and eventually died on 29 July 1923 after suffering a burst cerebral abscess. He died at the age of 34 and was laid to rest in the North Road Cemetery in North Adelaide.

Before his demise Butler had ordered from the United Kingdom a de Havilland DH.53 Humming Bird and another Bristol M.1C. They arrived after his death. The Humming Bird was offered for sale by his executors in September 1924. The M.1C (serial C4964) had been allotted the British registration G-EAER, but this was never carried, and the subsequent history and ultimate fate of the aircraft are not known.

In 1930 Captain Horrie Miller, one of the founders of MacRobertson-Miller Airlines, bought an M.1C, presumably the ‘Red Devil’, from the estate of Harry Butler. A 73 kw (98 hp) de Havilland Gipsy 1 engine was fitted, this necessitating the re-profiling of the fuselage to flat sides to take the in-line engine in lieu of the rotary, and the aircraft was otherwise modified. Re-registered to Captain Miller as VH-UQI (c/n 2819) on 15 October 1931, it was later fitted with a Gipsy 2 engine, and later again a Gipsy 3 engine. Re-named ‘Puck’ it won the 1931 and 1932 Adelaide Aerial Derbies, and took part in the 1932 Victorian Aerial Derby painted as VH-UQI, but withdrew because of engine problems.

The Civil Aviation Board in 1936 refused to grant a Certificate of Airworthiness to the M.1C, so VH-UQI was struck off the register, although it was flown from Adelaide to Perth, WA in May 1940 with a ferry permit. Captain Miller flew it a couple more times in Western Australia after the war but then it was dismantled and stored.

In 1956 Captain Miller presented the aircraft to the people of Minlaton. It was restored at Essendon, VIC, then taken to and installed in the Harry Butler Memorial in October 1958. Painted red with the registration VH-UQI on the side, and the name ‘Puck’ on the nose, the Bristol was fitted at that time with a Gipsy engine. In 1973 it was fitted with the original nine-cylinder Le Rhone rotary engine and had the name ‘Red Devil’ painted on the red fuselage side in white, the racing number ’83’ in black on a white background under the wing, and the British serial C5001 on the tail in black. However, the cowling was not the same type that was fitted to it when it originally flew with this type of engine.

At that time the aircraft still retained the flat-sided fuselage, an alteration which was made after the removal of the original Le Rhone engine. In 1989 the Balaklava (SA) Gliding Club repaired damaged fabric and restored the fuselage to correct the shape as it had been with the rotary engine. It was at this time configured in the form it operated with Butler & Kauper Aviation.

The M.1C at Minlaton is the only surviving original aircraft. However, three replicas have been built, two in 1987, one for the RAF Museum at Hendon in Greater London, and another for the Chilean Air Force Museum. Another was completed during 1996 for the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden in Bedfordshire, UK and this occasionally flies as C4910/G-BWJM.