AD Scout
AD Scout | |
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300px | |
A.D. Scout Sparrow ExCC. | |
Role | Fighter |
Manufacturer | Air Department |
Designer | Harris Booth[1] |
First flight | 1915 |
Primary user | Royal Naval Air Service - testing only |
Number built | 4[1] |
The AD Scout (also known as the Sparrow) was designed by Harris Booth of the British Admiralty's Air Department as a fighter aircraft to defend Britain from Zeppelin bombers during World War I.[1]
Contents
Design and development
The Scout was a decidedly unconventional aircraft - a biplane with a fuselage pod mounted on the upper wing. A twin-rudder tail was attached by four booms, and it was provided with an extremely narrow-track undercarriage. The primary armament was intended to be a 2-pounder recoilless Davis Gun, but this was never fitted.[1] Four prototypes were ordered in 1915 and two each were built by Hewlett & Blondeau and the Blackburn Aeroplane & Motor Company.
Operational history
Trials flown by pilots of the Royal Naval Air Service at Chingford proved the aircraft to be seriously overweight, fragile, sluggish, and difficult to handle, even on the ground. The project was abandoned and all four prototypes scrapped.[1]
Operators
Specifications (AD Scout)
Data from The British Fighter since 1912[2]
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: 22 ft 9 in (6.93 m)
- Wingspan: 33 ft 5 in (10.18 m)
- Height: 10 ft 3 in (3.12 m)
- Powerplant: 1 × Gnome Monosoupape[3] rotary engine, 100 hp (75 kW)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 84 mph [4] (73 knots, 135 km/h)
- Range: 210 miles[citation needed] (336 km)
Armament
- Guns: 1x 2-pounder (40 mm) Davis recoilless gun (intended, but never fitted in view of the fragility of the Scout's construction)
See also
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to AD Scout. |
- Notes
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- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from October 2009
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- Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United Kingdom
- Air Department aircraft
- Blackburn aircraft
- British fighter aircraft 1910–1919
- Single-engined pusher aircraft
- Twin-boom aircraft