Saturday, 2 July 2016

Austin Osprey

The Austin Osprey was a triplane fighter prototype built by the British Austin Motor Company as a replacement for the Sopwith Camel.

In 1917 the British War Office issued an specification for a single-seat fighter that could replace the Camel. In order to meet that requeriment, the Austin Motor Company, that had been producing airplanes at a large scale, received a license for building a single-seat triplane fighter and they were given the license to build three prototypes as a private venture.

It was made out of wood and fabric, as was usual during that period with single-bay triplane wings and was powered by a single Bentley BR2 Rotary engine delivering 230hp of power. It was armed with two Vickers machine-guns, as requested in the specification plus a single Lewis machine gun mounted in the middle wing on a movable mechanism. Apparently, that Lewis had a very limited field of fire and the diameter of the propellers blocked any forward fire, as this one wasn't synchronized. Most probably, as the initial designs of the Sopwith Snipe (the fighter that eventually was chosen as the replacement for the Camel) featured also a similar gun, this would've been deleted if it had been accepted into production.

It made it's maiden flight on February 1918 and was tested by the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Martlesham Heath in March. It proved to be heavier than expected and gave worst performance results than the Snipe, so the Snipe was chosen. As it wasn't chosen, Austin abandoned any further development on it and didn't complete more prototypes. Apparently the first prototype was still being used for trials at the Royal Aircraft Establishment until, at least June 1918.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Osprey
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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