Vickers F.B.12

The Vickers F.B.12 was a biplane pusher fighter developed during the First World War by Vickers Limited. At the start of the war Vickers entered a partnership with the Hart Engine Company to develop a 150 hp nine-cylinder radial, planned to power several new Vickers designs, of which the F.B.12 was the first, a small single-engine pusher with the engine directly behind a raised nacelle. The raised nacelle improved the rear view, but the pusher layout was already obsolescent beside the D.H.2 and F.E.8. The first F.B.12 flew in June 1916 with an 80 hp Le Rhone rotary and was underpowered, so it was refitted with a 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape and rebuilt with greater span as the F.B.12A, which was tested in France in December 1916. The War Office ordered 50 Hart-powered F.B.12C aircraft, but after the F.B.12B crashed and Vickers abandoned the Hart, only 18 were built with a variety of engines. The failure of the engine and the obsolete layout left it an experimental type only.