Supermarine Nighthawk

The Supermarine Nighthawk, also called the P.B.31E, was a First World War British anti-Zeppelin night fighter designed by Noel Pemberton Billing and built at Woolston, Southampton, after his company became Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd. It was a quadruplane with two 100 horsepower Anzani radial engines, a crew of three to five and an intended endurance of nine to eighteen hours. A trainable nose searchlight was powered by a separate petrol-driven generator, possibly the first recognisable airborne auxiliary power unit, and armament was a Davis gun above the top wing plus two Lewis guns. Reginald Mitchell, later designer of the Spitfire, initialled the drawings as chief designer. The prototype first flew in February 1917 but was quickly outdated when Zeppelins proved easier to destroy by igniting their hydrogen with explosive bullets, and only that one aircraft was built.