Intended to serve as both a land and carrier-borne fighter, the Buffalo saw its first combat in Finnish service, as several were transferred from the United States after the Winter War. War Office photo Brewster Buffalo (509)Ī short, squat and unattractive aircraft, the Buffalo entered service in the same year as the Mitsubishi A6M Zero and the Bf-109, two overwhelmingly superior aircraft. Incidentally, the failure of the Royal Flying Corps to effectively substitute for the B.E.2 in a timely fashion provided much grist for early advocates of the Royal Air Force, the world’s first independent air force.īrewster Buffalo fighters over Malaya in 1942. But the B.E.2’s difficulty and poor reliability, combined with the British decision to keep it in service well beyond its freshness date, earn it a spot on this list.
It’s tough to give a failing grade to a first effort. Refinements often hurt more than they helped, with the plane becoming steadily more dangerous and accident prone as grew heavier. The advent of the Fokker Eindecker made the B.E.2 positively hazardous to fly.
In a sense, the B.E.2 inspired the first generation of fighters by displaying all of the qualities that no one wanted in a fighter aircraft, including poor visibility, poor reliability, difficulty of control, slow speed and weak armament. First flown in 1912, it remained in service until 1919, with its responsibilities steadily declining as better aircraft became available. The Royal B.E.2 was one of the first military aircraft put into serious industrial production, with a run of around 3,500 aircraft. Preparing aircraft before anyone had fought an air war was undoubtedly a struggle for pilots and engineers. Tony Hisgett photo via Flickr Royal B.E.2 (3,500)
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