Vickers F.B.14

The Vickers F.B.14 was a British two-seat fighter and reconnaissance biplane designed and built by Vickers Limited during the First World War. About 100 were built for the Royal Flying Corps, but it saw only limited use. It was a conventional single-bay biplane with two tandem open cockpits and a fixed tailskid undercarriage. It was designed around a new 230 hp BHP inline engine, later to become the Siddeley Puma, but the engine was not ready when the steel-tube airframe was completed in mid 1916, so a 160 hp Beardmore engine was fitted instead. The aircraft was underpowered with the Beardmore and did not meet its performance expectations. The later Vixen of 1922 built on the experience of this unsuccessful wartime design.