Bristol S.S.A.

The Bristol S.S.A., short for Single Seat Armoured, was an armoured scout built at Bristol in 1914 to fulfil a French government order. At the request of the French, Henri Coanda designed a single seat armoured biplane whose forward fuselage was a monocoque shell of sheet steel, nicknamed The Bath, enclosing the engine, fuel tank, oil tank and cockpit. The 80 hp Clerget 7Z rotary was fully cowled with sheet steel and drove a two bladed propeller with a perforated steel spinner. The staggered biplane wings were mounted far forward, and the undercarriage had castering main wheels at the French customer's request. The sole prototype first flew at Larkhill on 8 May 1914.