AD Scout/Sparrow

Unexpectedly we have another airplane to post before the end of the year. The AD Scout.

The AD Scout/Sparrow was an anti-zeppelin fighter designed by Harris Booth for the Royal Naval Air Service.

It was an unconventional design  as it was a biplane with the cockpit pod mounted over the upper wing, a rudder tail was held by four booms and featured an extremely narrow track undercarriage. It was intended to be armed with a recoilles Davis Gun but it was never fitted. Four prototypes were manufactured by Hewlett & Blondeau and the Blackburn Aeroplane & Motor Company.

After the trials conducted by the Royal Naval Air Service it was found to be seriously heavy, fragile, sluggish and hard to pilot, even on ground, that's why the project was abandoned and the prototypes were scrapped.

Fairey F.2

Merry Christmas everyone! Today we include a not very known British airplane of the Great War era.

The Fairey F.2 was a British fighter prototype designed in 1916.

It was ordered by the Admiralty as a massive three seat long-range fighter that could perform escort missions deep within enemy territory, which would later inspire the Caudron R.11.

It featured a three-bay biplane installation and a four wheel undercarriage. The wings could be folded at one point behind the engines. It was armed with two Lewis 0,303 machine guns, one at the nose and another dorsal one just behind the wings.

it was built at Harlington and transported by road to Northolt Airfield where it flew for the first time on 17th May 1917. However, the Admiralty was no more interested on an airplane of these characteristics and it was found to be slow and hard to maneouver so it never went beyond the prototype stage.

Fairey Campania

We continue drawing, this time with the biggest airplane we have drawn yet.

The Fairey Campania was a ship-borne patrol floatplane with twin main floats and backward folding wings. It was the first airplane designed specifically for carrier operations.

When, in the middle of 1916, the Campania was fitted with a forward flight-deck, where they could launch aircraft from, the admiralty issued a specification for a purposely built two-seat reconnaissance aircraft that could operate from ships.
Fairey designed a tractor biplane in February 1917 it was made out of wood and was covered in fabric. The two wings could fold backwards for storage, in order to save space. It was armed with a lewis machine gun placed in the observer cockpit and could also carry up to 6 53kg bombs under the wings or fuselage.

As the trials with the prototypes (which after testing they operated from the Royal Naval Air Service air station of Scapa Flow) were successful, many Campanias were shipped on board of HMS Campania, HMS Nairana and HMS Pegasus seaplane carriers all of them. As the HMS Campania was the only one fitted with a flying deck, only the airplanes operating from that ship took-off using the wheels in the floaters, the rest took-off in the traditional floatplane way (after being deployed in the sea using a crane, obviously).

It didn't achieve any distinguishable record, but served well in it's role as spotter. During the north Russian campaign, in the Russian Civil war, some Campanias from HMS Nairana, took part on what maybe was the first combined air land and sea attack on history joining entente land forces and driving Bolshevik forces away which had been fortified on Modyugski Island. Once the port of Arkhangelsk was taken, the Campanias operated from there.

They were declared obsolet in 1919.