Bristol M . 1 The Bristol M . 1 Monoplane Scout was a British monoplane fighter of the First World War . Development . In 1916 , Frank Barnwell , chief designer of Bristol Aeroplane Company , realising that the performance of existing fighter aircraft was inadequate , designed a new single - seat tractor monoplane fighter as a private venture , the Bristol M . 1 . The first prototype , the M . 1A made its maiden flight on 14 July 1916 . It was of conventional wood and fabric construction , with a carefully streamlined circular cross - section fuselage . The wing was shoulder mounted and was braced with flying wires running from the wing to the lower fuselage and landing wires from the wings to a cabane made of two semi - circular steel tube hoops positioned over the pilot ' s cockpit . A Clerget rotary engine drove a two - bladed propeller fitted with a large hemispherical spinner to reduce drag . It was purchased by the War Office for evaluation , and demonstrated impressive performance during official testing , reaching a speed of and climbing to in 8 minutes 30 seconds , although the forward and downward view was criticised by test pilots . The War Office ordered four modified aircraft , designated M . 1B , in October 1916 . These differed from the first prototype in having a more conventional cabane consisting of a pyramid of four straight steel struts , a large clear - view cut - out panel in the starboard wing root to give improved view for landing and a single . 303 in ( 7 . 7 mm ) Vickers machine gun mounted on the port wing root . Despite excellent performance - it had a maximum speed some 30 - 50 mph ( 50 – 80 km / h ) higher than any of the contemporary German Fokker " Eindecker " and French Morane - Saulnier N monoplanes - it was rejected by the Air Ministry for service on the Western Front , ostensibly because its landing speed of 49 mph was considered too high for small French airfields , but more likely because of a widespread belief that monoplane aircraft were inherently unsafe in combat . The RFC had imposed a ban on monoplanes after the crash of one of the Bristol - Coanda Monoplanes on 10 September 1912 , and despite the subsequent 1913 Monoplane Committee clearing the design type there persisted a deep - rooted suspicion of monoplanes . This suspicion may also have been re - inforced by the RFC ' s underwhelming experience with various Morane - Saulnier monoplanes , especially the Morane - Saulnier N , which was also criticised for its high landing speed . Nevertheless , a production order for 125 aircraft was placed on 3 August 1917 . Designated M . 1C , this version was fitted with a Le Rhône rotary engine and had a Vickers machine gun centrally - mounted in front of the pilot . A single M . 1 , registered " G - EAVP " was rebuilt as a high - speed testbed for the Bristol Lucifer three cylinder radial engine . This aircraft was designated the M . 1D . Operational history . 33 M . 1Cs served in the Middle East and the Balkans in 1917 - 18 , while the rest were used by UK - based training units , where they were popular as personal mounts for senior officers . One pilot of the M . 1Cs that served on the Macedonian Front was Captain Frederick Dudley Travers DFC of No . 150 Squadron RAF , the only ace on this type . Travers switched from the Royal Aircraft Factory SE . 5a , in which he had scored three of his then total of four kills , and scored the last five of his victories between 2 and 16 September 1918 , possibly all in the M . 1C serial number C4976 . Amongst his victims was a Fokker D . VII , widely regarded as the best German fighter of its day . Twelve were sent to Chile on second half of 1918 in part payment for the battleship s and " Almirante Cochrane " being built for Chile in Britain , but commandeered for the Royal Navy before completion . One of these , flown by Lt . Godoy , was used to fly from Santiago to Mendoza , Argentina and back on 12 December 1918 , the first flight across the Andes mountain chain . The Lucifer engined M . 1D , painted red and registered G - EAVP , was successfully raced during 1922 , winning the handicap prize in the 1922 Aerial Derby , piloted by L . L . Carter . The next year it was fitted with a specially tuned Lucifer and entered for the Grosvenor Cup , during which it is crashed at Chertsey on approach to Croydon Airport , killing the pilot , Leslie Foot .