Royal Aircraft Factory F . E . 8 The Royal Aircraft Factory F . E . 8 was a British single - seat fighter of the First World War designed at the Royal Aircraft Factory . Although a clean and well designed little aeroplane for a pusher , it could not escape the drag penalty imposed by its tail structure and was no match for the Albatros fighters of late 1916 . Design and development . With the D . H . 2 , the F . E . 8 was one of the first so - called " scout " aircraft designed from the outset as a single - seat fighter . In the absence of a synchronization gear to provide a forward firing machine gun for a tractor scout such as the S . E . 2 , it was given a pusher layout . On the whole the new design , produced by a team led by John Kenworthy followed the conventional " Farman " layout , as did the competing Airco DH . 2 designed by Geoffrey de Havilland , who had also previously worked at the Royal Aircraft Factory - but it had some novel features . The nacelle was , most unusually for the time , an all - metal structure – being framed in steel tube and covered with duralumin . The prototypes were fitted with large streamlined spinners on the propellers , although these were removed , and the production F . E . 8s were built without them . The wings had a narrow chord , giving them a high aspect ratio . They featured dihedral outboard of the wide centre section , and the ailerons were of unusually long span - occupying the entire wing trailing edge outboard of the tail booms . The booms themselves were attached to the main spar of the tailplane , rather than the rudder post , giving them taper in side elevation rather than in plan , as more usual in a " Farman " style pusher . This allowed the fitting of a variable incidence tailplane , although this was not adjustable in flight , but only on the ground . A single 100 hp ( 75 kW ) Gnome 9 " Type B2 " " Monosoupape " rotary engine driving a four - bladed propeller powered the aircraft , with the capability of taking the lower - powered Le Rhône 9C 80 hp , nine - cylinder rotary . The new aircraft made its maiden flight on 15 October 1915 , flown by Frank Gooden , who was happy with the aircraft ' s handling . The aircraft was then armed with a single Lewis gun , which was originally fitted on a movable mount within the nose of the nacelle , with the machine gun ' s breech almost at the pilot ' s feet . This proved awkward in practice , and in production machines the gun was mounted directly in front of the pilot , in the manner of the D . H . 2 . Other changes required before the aircraft entered production included extra fuel to counter criticism from Hugh Trenchard , commander of the Royal Flying Corps in France , that the F . E . 8 ' s endurance was too short . The new fighter was not a great improvement on the D . H . 2 – although a little faster it was rather less manoeverable . It was nonetheless ordered into production from Darracq Motors and Vickers . Neither manufacturer delivered their F . E . 8s particularly quickly , so that the type ended up reaching the front in numbers six months later than the D . H . 2 . Operational history . The second prototype , serial no . 7457 , had a spinner mounted when it was sent to No . 5 Squadron RFC at Abeele for evaluation on 26 December 1915 ; this spinner was removed before mid - January 1916 . No . 7457 became the nearly exclusive mount of Captain Frederick Powell . A few early production F . E . 8s were briefly used by the D . H . 2 equipped No . 29 Squadron RFC in June 1916 , but it was not until August that No . 40 Squadron became fully operational on the type . The only other unit to be completely equipped with the type , No . 41 Squadron , arrived in France in October . After a fairly good start , the F . E . 8 units quickly ran into problems with the new German fighters . On 9 March 1917 nine F . E . 8 of No . 40 Squadron had a dogfight with five Albatros D . III s of Jagdstaffel 11 , led by Manfred von Richthofen himself . Four F . E . 8s were shot down , four others badly damaged , and the survivor caught fire when landing . After this disaster No . 40 Squadron was re - equipped with Nieuports but No . 41 kept their pushers until July 1917 – becoming the last single - seat pusher fighter squadron in France , using them for ground attack duties during the Battle of Messines . The only ace on the type was " Lobo " Benbow . Two F . E . 8s were sent to Home Defence units in 1917 , but the type was not adopted as a home defence fighter . Reproductions . Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome ' s founder , Cole Palen , built the first known flyable reproduction of an F . E . 8 , which is believed to have first flown in 1970 at Old Rhinebeck with a Le Rhône 9C 80 hp rotary engine . It flew in the weekend air shows at Old Rhinebeck for a number of years , before being retired . It is currently on loan at the National Air and Space Museum . The Owl ' s Head Transportation Museum in Maine has another F . E . 8 reproduction in its collection , powered by a modern air - cooled , horizontally opposed engine . It was built in California , before being flown cross country and donated to the Museum upon arrival .