AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 03 / 129

Plate 03 of 129 · Great War · Two-seat pusher fighter

Vickers F.B.5 ‘Gunbus’

F.B.5 ‘Gunbus’, painted as 2345 ‘Bombay (2)’, a Vickers F.B.5 ‘Gunbus’ of the Royal Flying Corps: the 1914 two-seat pusher biplane built from the start to carry a machine gun, with the observer’s Lewis gun in the nose of a short nacelle, a 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape rotary driving the propeller behind the crew, equal-span wings and an open tail-boom framework carrying a broad tailplane and balanced rudder; shown as the replica built at Weybridge in 1965–66 and displayed at the RAF Museum, London: clear-doped linen wings and tail, a bare aluminium nose and decking with linen side panels, varnished spruce struts and skids, roundels on the nacelle and wings, ‘BOMBAY (2)’ on the nacelle sides, and the serial and red, white and blue stripes on the rudder; the roundels on top of the upper wing, which no photograph shows, follow RFC practice.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 2345 ‘Bombay (2)’, a Vickers F.B.5 ‘Gunbus’ of the Royal Flying Corps: the 1914 two-seat pusher biplane built from the start to carry a machine gun, with the observer’s Lewis gun in the nose of a short nacelle, a 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape rotary driving the propeller behind the crew, equal-span wings and an open tail-boom framework carrying a broad tailplane and balanced rudder; shown as the replica built at Weybridge in 1965–66 and displayed at the RAF Museum, London: clear-doped linen wings and tail, a bare aluminium nose and decking with linen side panels, varnished spruce struts and skids, roundels on the nacelle and wings, ‘BOMBAY (2)’ on the nacelle sides, and the serial and red, white and blue stripes on the rudder; the roundels on top of the upper wing, which no photograph shows, follow RFC practice. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.3 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (replica); engine, crew and dimensions are for the F.B.5 ‘Gunbus’ modelled here.

History

The F.B.5 Gunbus

Vickers began work on an armed aeroplane in 1912, when there was no reliable way to fire a machine gun through a turning propeller. Its answer was to put the engine behind the crew as a pusher, with the observer and his gun in the nose of a short nacelle and the tail carried on an open framework of booms. After a run of experimental gun-carriers, the F.B.5 (Fighting Biplane No. 5) emerged in 1914.

The “Gunbus” reached France in 1915, and in July No. 11 Squadron became the first unit to go to war equipped throughout with a single type of fighter. On 7 November 1915 Second Lieutenant Gilbert Insall of No. 11 Squadron won the Victoria Cross for forcing down a German two-seater in his Gunbus and then destroying it on the ground.

With a top speed of about 70 mph it was soon outclassed by the Fokker monoplanes and their synchronised guns, and it was withdrawn from the front in 1916. More than 200 were built in Britain and France, and no original survives.

This airframe

F.B.5 2345 ‘Bombay (2)’

2345The airframe modelled

The original 2345 was a presentation aircraft, named “Bombay (2)” after the fund that paid for it, which joined No. 18 Squadron RFC in November 1915. The Gunbus that carries its markings today is a replica, built at Weybridge in 1965–66 by volunteers of the Vintage Aircraft and Flying Association from Vickers drawings, with a rebuilt Gnome Monosoupape. Registered G-ATVP, it flew in June 1966, was given to the RAF Museum in 1968 and now hangs from the roof of the Grahame-White Factory at Hendon. The model shows it in its clear-doped linen with a bare aluminium nose, varnished struts and the serial and stripes on the rudder; the roundels on top of the upper wing, which no photograph shows, follow RFC practice.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum London

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the F.B.5 Gunbus in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 129 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.