Royal Aircraft Factory BE.8

Twin-Seat, Single-Engine Aircraft [ 1914 ]

The Royal Aircraft Factory BE.8 was not a success - fewer than 100 were produced during World War 1 with the line operated from 1914 until 1915.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 10/23/2020 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

GO TO SPECIFICATIONS [+]

Advertisements

The Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) BE.8 was a pre-World War 1 biplane aircraft without a truly defined role by the time the war arrived. As such, it was used in a variety of over-battlefield functions including general reconnaissance and light attack (and this only through hand-held weapons). The twin-seat, single-engine design appeared in 1912 and went on to see operational service in The Great War with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) of Britain - though in very limited numbers. Fewer than seventy examples are thought to have been produced and the line was operated during the war years only from May 1914 until the Spring of 1915, formally retired in 1916 - resulting in a rather forgettable career.

The design was quickly surpassed by more capable, defined-role types.

Its design was conventional, resulting in an equal-span, twin-bay biplane arrangement with the wing members seated over-under and supported through parallel struts neat the front of the fuselage. Some streamlining was seen at the fuselage proper and the nose contained the single engine installation. The tail utilized a basic single-finned configuration with low-set horizontal planes for the needed control. The undercarriage was fixed and of the usual "tail dragger" arrangement, this involving wheeled main landing gear legs under the forward mass, a tail skid, and a nose skid to prevent tip-overs.

The crew of two sat in open-air cockpits consistent with the time. Designed without armament of its own, the aircraft was defended by personal small arms carrier/managed by the crew. Additionally, a single 100lb could be carried and dropped on trench inhabitants or other targets of opportunity.

Dimensions included a running length of 27.4 feet, a wingspan of 37.7 feet, and a height of 9.3 feet.

Power was had from a Gnome 7 Lambda 7-cylinder, air-cooled rotary piston engine developing 80 horsepower and used to drive a twin-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller at the nose. Performance included a maximum speed of 70 miles-per-hour, a range of 1 hour, 30 minutes in the air, and a time-to-altitude of 3,000 feet in 10 minutes, 30 seconds.©MilitaryFactory.com

Note: The above text is EXCLUSIVE to the site www.MilitaryFactory.com. It is the product of many hours of research and work made possible with the help of contributors, veterans, insiders, and topic specialists. If you happen upon this text anywhere else on the internet or in print, please let us know at MilitaryFactory AT gmail DOT com so that we may take appropriate action against the offender / offending site and continue to protect this original work.

Specifications

Service Year

1914

Origin

United Kingdom

Status

RETIRED
Not in Service.

Crew

2

Production

70
UNITS

Royal Aircraft Factory - UK

(View other Aviaton-Related Manufacturers)

Untied Kingdom

(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)

✓ Air-to-Air Combat, Fighter
General ability to actively engage other aircraft of similar form and function, typically through guns, missiles, and/or aerial rockets.

✓ Interception
Ability to intercept inbound aerial threats by way of high-performance, typically speed and rate-of-climb.

✓ Ground Attack (Bombing, Strafing)
Ability to conduct aerial bombing of ground targets by way of (but not limited to) guns, bombs, missiles, rockets, and the like.

✓ Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance (ISR), Scout
Surveil ground targets / target areas to assess environmental threat levels, enemy strength, or enemy movement.

Length

27.4 ft
(8.35 m)

Width/Span

37.7 ft
(11.50 m)

Height

9.4 ft
(2.85 m)

(Showcased structural values pertain to the base Royal Aircraft Factory BE.8 production variant)

Installed: 1 x Gnome 7 Lambda 7-cylinder air-cooled rotary piston engine developing 80 horsepower driving two-bladed wooden propeller (fixed pitch) at the nose.

Max Speed

68 mph
(110 kph | 59 kts)

Ceiling

9,843 ft
(3,000 m | 2 mi)

Range

103 mi
(165 km | 306 nm)

Rate-of-Climb

300 ft/min
(91 m/min)

♦ MACH Regime (Sonic)

Sub

Trans

Super

Hyper

HiHyper

ReEntry

♦

(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the base Royal Aircraft Factory BE.8 production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)

OPTIONAL:
Personal weapons carried by the pilot/observer. Also 100lb conventional drop bomb.

Supported Types

Graphical image of an aircraft conventional drop bomb munition

(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)

BE.8 - Base Series Designation.

Military lapel ribbon for Operation Allied Force

Military lapel ribbon for the Arab-Israeli War

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Britain

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Midway

Military lapel ribbon for the Berlin Airlift

Military lapel ribbon for the Cuban Missile Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for pioneering aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the Falklands War

Military lapel ribbon for the French-Indochina War

Military lapel ribbon for the Golden Age of Flight

Military lapel ribbon for the 1991 Gulf War

Military lapel ribbon for the Indo-Pak Wars

Military lapel ribbon for the Iran-Iraq War

Military lapel ribbon for the Korean War

Military lapel ribbon for the 1982 Lebanon War

Military lapel ribbon for the Malayan Emergency

Military lapel ribbon representing modern aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the attack on Pearl Harbor

Military lapel ribbon for the Six Day War

Military lapel ribbon for the Soviet-Afghan War

Military lapel ribbon for the Spanish Civil War

Military lapel ribbon for the Suez Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for the Ukranian-Russian War

Military lapel ribbon for the Vietnam War

Military lapel ribbon for Warsaw Pact of the Cold War-era

Military lapel ribbon for the WASP (WW2)

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 1

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 2

Military lapel ribbon for the Yom Kippur War

Military lapel ribbon for experimental x-plane aircraft

Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective aerial campaigns / operations / aviation periods.

Images Gallery

1 / 1

Image of the Royal Aircraft Factory BE.8

Image from the Public Domain.