Austin Osprey

The Austin A.F.T.3 Osprey was a prototype British fighter triplane of the First World War, developed privately by the Austin Motor Company as a replacement for the Sopwith Camel. Austin, already a large-scale builder of aircraft to Royal Aircraft Factory designs, answered a 1917 War Office specification for a single-seat fighter with a wood and fabric single-bay triplane powered by a Bentley BR2 rotary engine and armed with two synchronised Vickers guns and a Lewis gun on the middle wing. The first aircraft flew in February 1918 and was tested at Martlesham Heath, but it was heavier than expected and performed worse than the Sopwith Snipe. When the Snipe won the competition Austin abandoned the project and only one Osprey was completed.