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FLIGHTPATH | 53

T

he Bristol Aircraft Company entered
the Great War in a remarkably advanta-
geous position as a well founded, fund-
ed, and dedicated aircraft company
with multiple successful types to their name,
putting them ahead of many competitors in
the early period of the war as well as ahead of
those scrambling to obtain military aircraft
orders once major production was needed.
They were the offshoot of an existing
transport-orientated business, and had nota-
ble experience in developing new designs by

• for the time – a well developed engineering
  basis. Thus Bristol stood out from many oth-
  er ambitious organizations lacking elements
  Bristol deployed – an established, experi-
  enced design (and development) office,
  workshops and production facilities, a stable,

knowledgeable governing board, and suffi-

cient cash to be secure. (In 1913, the com-

pany had been recapitalised at £250,000.)

Further, they had been operating a pair of

Bristol aircraft-equipped flying schools prior

to the war, and had exported production air-

craft literally worldwide, with their Boxkites

in service in locations as far flung as Austral-

ia [See Flightpath Vol.25 No.3.] India and

Russia. By 4 August 1914, the Bristol compa-

ny had built 260 aircraft, and the Bristol fly-

ing schools had trained more than 300 pilots,

a remarkable record for the era.

While everyone knew the business as

‘Bristol’, we should note that throughout the

company’s history it was initially properly

the ‘British & Colonial Aeroplane Company’

and later the ‘Bristol Aircraft Company’.

Bristol’s Scout

Just before the war erupted, Bristol had pro-

duced the neat looking little Bristol Baby

(later ‘Scout’). Designed by Frank Barnwell,

and test flown by expatriate Australian Har-

ry Busteed, who was heavily involved with

the company, it proved to be faster and with

a better climb rate than the Sopwith Tabloid

and the Royal Aircraft Factory’s S.E.2, the

latter designed by Geoffrey de Havilland.

Official development of the machine, then

only weighing 617 lb (280 kg) empty, into a

more robust and serviceable aircraft fol-

lowed, along with a range of semi-extempo-

rary armament fits, one, an outward-point-

ing Lewis gun, arranged so as to clear the

propeller’s arc. This was used by Captain

Lanoe Hawker in the action which saw him

Bristol in the

Great War

The Great War was a major change in aviation, with many companies established and

growing within the period. One company, however, entered the war with more experience

and capability than almost any other. James Kightly reviews the Bristol lineage of 1914-18

Photograph of the Bristol Scout prototype in

March 1914, in its original form on display at the

1914 Aero Show in Olympia. [via Author]