Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Single-seat biplane fighter scout

Power Plant:

One 149 kw (200 hp) Wolseley Viper eight-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled engine; or

One 149 kw (200 hp) Hispano Suiza 8a eight-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

Armament:

One fixed 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Vickers machine gun firing forward; one 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Lewis machine gun on top of centre section; four 11.3 kg (25 lb) bombs on carrier under fuselage.

History:

The SE.5 (Scout Experimental 5) and SE.5a, together with the Sopwith Camel, share the distinction of being the best single-seat British fighter aircraft of World War I.  Designed by the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) at Farnborough, in the United Kingdom, it incorporated much of the inherent stability built into all RAF machines and, although it was slightly faster than the Camel and was a steadier gun platform, it did not possess that aircraft’s manoeuvrability.

The prototype of the SE.5 (A4561), designed by HP Folland and J Kenworthy, was flown for the first time on 22 November 1916 by Major FW Gooden and was powered by a 112 kw (150 hp) Hispano Suiza engine.  The second prototype (A4562) first flew on 1 December 1917 with a direct drive Hispano Suiza engine and went to France on Christmas Eve 1916. It was flown in comparative trials with a Nieuport 17 and Spad VII.  The third SE.5 prototype (A4563) was first flown on 12 January 1917 with a geared 149 kw (200hp) Hispano Suiza.  It went to the Aircraft & Armament Experimental Establishment at Martlesham Heath in May 1917 for trials and became the prototype for the SE.5a fitted with either the Hispano Suiza or the Wolseley Viper engine.  Some 5,205 SE.5 and SE.5a aircraft were built and, by 1918, they equipped 14 British, two American, and one Australian Squadrons on the Western Front, as well as squadrons in Palestine, Mesopotomia, and Macedonia.

The first production batch of the type was 24 SE.5s (A4845 to A4868) and this was followed by a second production batch of 50 (A8898 to A8947).  Captain Albert Ball, a renowned World War I pilot with No 56 Squadron, flew A4850, shooting down two German aircraft on 26 April 1917.  Other aces who flew the type included Major EC ‘Mick’ Mannock with a score of 73, Major JB McCudden 57 and Captain AW Beauchamp-Proctor 54.

In the United Kingdom a number of SE.5as were converted to two-seat trainers during World War I with a second cockpit in place of the fuselage fuel tank forward of the normal cockpit. After May 1920 many came onto the civil market and a number took part in air-racing in the United Kingdom, including the Grosvenor Trophy Race at Lympne. A number were converted for skywriting at Hendon by Savage Skywriting Co Ltd, and this company placed 33 on the UK civil register.  This company travelled to Australia, the USA and Europe performing contracts in the 1920s and set up Skywriters Corp of America in 1926, which had 11 aircraft, and another company in Germany in 1929.  In addition, ten other SE.5as were privately owned in the UK.

The SE.5a was also to be built in the USA, an order for 1,000 examples being placed with the Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co, but only one was completed.  A considerable number were delivered to the US after the Armistice. Some were built from spares by Eberhardt Co, were designated SE.5E and had a 134 kw (180 hp) Wright Hispano E engine.

The SE.5a saw service with the RAAF from 1921 to 1928, being supplied as part of the Imperial Gift.  However, many were in poor condition. Only a small number of those supplied were assembled, and others were assembled only as replacements were required. A number – probably about 12 – were scrapped without having ever been flown in Australia mainly due to damage occasioned by poor storage facilities for them after they arrived.  Those aircraft supplied as part of the Imperial Gift and initially assembled became A2-1 to A2-36.

One was converted at Point Cook, VIC to two-seat training configuration (A2-36).  This involved the removal of the fuel tank from the fuselage to make room for a second cockpit. To give the necessary fuel capacity twin fuel tanks were installed above the wing centre section. An air force display team using five aircraft under the command of Flt Lt AAN ‘Jerry’ Pentland MC DFC was formed. A number were lost in accidents during service, including A2-11, A2-24, A2-25, A2-26 and A2-28.  The survivors continued until replaced by the Bristol Bulldog in 1930.

One example of the SE.5a is held by the Australian War Memorial collection in Canberra, ACT. This machine (A2-4) was transferred from the RAAF to the War Memorial collection in 1929.  Painted as an aircraft of No 2 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps (serial C9539), it has been displayed as a tribute to the aircraft flown by Captain HG Forrest, DFC, who shot down three enemy aircraft in one day, on two occasions, 22 March and 2 June 1918, and destroyed ten enemy aircraft in all.  In February 1992 the RAAF Museum recovered the remains of A2-11 near Mansfield, VIC for eventual restoration and display at the museum.  The remains of another ex-RAAF machine were stored on a property at Brentwood, SA for some years but its ultimate fate is not known.  In 2001, as part of a deal in relation to a CAC built Mustang, the RAAF Museum received a replica SE.5a built in the United Kingdom and this has been painted to represent A2-31.

An airworthy example known as aN SE.5a-1 was built in 2006 by The Vintage Aviator Limited at Wellington, NZ and this became ZK-SEO (c/n WA19 – serial D3540), being followed by a further two, ZK-SES (c/n WA20 – serial B507) and ZK-SEV (c/n WA19 – serial F5690) . These full-scale machines are powered by a 134 kw (180 hp) Hispano Suiza direct drive engine built under licence by Wright Martin in the US and are part of the collection of World War I fighters. Another reproduction, non-airworthy, is held in the Heritage Museum at Omaka and is painted as D6864.

A few replicas of the SE.5 series have been built for museums, and a couple have been made airworthy. One non flying replica (serial F5459) is held by the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum at Wanaka and is painted as an aircraft of No 85 Squadron, RAF.  Another serial (C9539) was on display at the Australian Aviation Museum at Bankstown, NSW until it closed in 2018.  One (serial F904) is airworthy with the Shuttleworth Trust at Old Warden in the UK, and another was airworthy and flown for many years with the Tallman Mantz collection in the United States. Another ( serial F938) is on display at the RAF Museum, Hendon. In addition, a number of scale replicas have been built from kits.

A full scale replica was imported to Queensland in 2015, becoming VH-EWJ5 (c/n SE-5-AF-5447 – ex PH-IWO, N640AB) to its owner Ross Bate at Bellmere, being registered on 12 October 2016.  The aircraft was built by Albert Braun of Swansea, Illinois, registered N640AB in 1996 and painted in the markings of C5430.  It was sold in the Netherlands in September 2009 where it became SP-IWO and came to Australia in July 2015, being painted in the markings of D6995, an aircraft flown by 2nd Lt Frank Alberry DCM of No 2 Squadron AFC during 1919.  It has subsequently been based with The Australian Vintage Aviation Society collection at Caboolture, QLD. It suffered some damage in an accident and is on display at the Society’s museum.