Plate 01 of 35 · Great War · Reconnaissance biplane

Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2

B.E.2c, painted as 2699, a Ruston Proctor-built B.E.2c of 1916 that flew with No. 50 Home Defence Squadron, in clear-doped linen with a grey metal cowling and black exhaust stacks, as it is preserved by the Imperial War Museum at Duxford.

Side profile of the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2, B.E.2c 2699, port side

Port profile, drawn level from the 3D model below. B.E.2c 2699.

Plate01 / 35
TypeRoyal Aircraft Factory B.E.2
MarkB.E.2c
Airframe2699
MakerRoyal Aircraft Factory
OriginBritain

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (B.E.2b–2e); engine, crew and dimensions are for the B.E.2c modelled here.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 2699, a Ruston Proctor-built B.E.2c of 1916 that flew with No. 50 Home Defence Squadron, in clear-doped linen with a grey metal cowling and black exhaust stacks, as it is preserved by the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (932 KB)

History

The B.E.2c

Geoffrey de Havilland designed the B.E.2 at the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, and it first flew in 1912. ‘B.E.’ stood for Blériot Experimental, the Factory’s name for an aeroplane with its propeller at the front. That August de Havilland set a British height record in one, and B.E.2s were among the first RFC aircraft to fly to France in 1914.

The B.E.2c followed in 1914 from Edward Busk’s work on stability at Farnborough. New wings with ailerons and a revised tail made it so steady that it could almost fly itself, which suited artillery spotting and photography. Some 3,500 B.E.2s of all marks were built, most of them by outside contractors.

That steadiness was also its weakness. The observer sat in the front seat among the struts and wires with a poor field of fire, and in 1915–16 the B.E.2c suffered badly against the Fokker monoplanes and later German fighters. At home it did better: on the night of 2–3 September 1916 William Leefe Robinson shot down the airship SL 11 in one and was awarded the Victoria Cross.

2699The airframe modelled

This airframe

B.E.2c 2699

2699 is a genuine B.E.2c built by Ruston, Proctor & Co. of Lincoln in about 1916. It flew with No. 50 Home Defence Squadron from 1917 and later with training units, and it went to the Imperial War Museum in 1919. For many years it hung in the atrium at IWM London and it is now at IWM Duxford. The model shows it in clear-doped linen with a grey metal cowling, black exhaust stacks, roundels on the fuselage and under the lower wings, the serial under each lower wing and a blue, white and red striped rudder.

See it at IWM Duxford

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the B.E.2c in 5 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial