The Armstrong Whitworth F.K.10 was a British two-seat

quadruplane In aviation, a multiplane is a fixed-wing aircraft-configuration featuring multiple wing planes. The wing planes may be stacked one above another, or one behind another, or both in combination. Types having a small number of planes have specific n ...

(''i.e.'', four wing)

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

built by

Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Tyne and Wear, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomot ...

during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. While it was ordered in small numbers for the

Royal Flying Corps The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...

and

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...

, it was not used operationally. It is one of the few quadruplane aircraft to reach production.

Development

The F.K.10 was designed in 1916 by

Frederick Koolhoven Frederick (Frits) Koolhoven (11 January 1886 – 1 July 1946) was an aircraft designer in Britain and his native Netherlands. Koolhoven was born in Bloemendaal, Netherlands. After training as an engineer in Liège and Antwerp, he worked from 1 ...

,Mason 1992, p.76. the chief designer of

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company, or Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, was a British list of aircraft manufacturers, aircraft manufacturer. History Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was established as the Aerial Department of the Armstrong ...

as a single-engine two-seat fighter. Koolhoven chose the novel quadruplane layout, also used by Pemberton-Billing (later known as

Supermarine Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer. It is most famous for producing the Spitfire fighter plane during World War II. The company built a range of seaplanes and flying boats, winning the Schneider Trophy for seaplanes with three cons ...

) for the P.B.29E and

Supermarine Nighthawk The Supermarine Nighthawk or P.B.31E was a First World War British aircraft, designed by Noel Pemberton Billing and built at Woolston, Southampton after Pemberton Billing's company became Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd. The P.B.31E, as wit ...

anti-

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

aircraft, and the contemporary Wight Quadruplane scout. At roughly the same time, Sopwith were building the successful

Sopwith Triplane The Sopwith Triplane is a British single seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War. It has the distinction of being the first military triplane to see operational service. The T ...

fighter. The first prototype, the F.K.9 Green and Swanborough 1994, p.25. was built and first flown in the summer of 1916, powered by a 110 hp (80 kW)

Clerget Clerget-Blin (full name being ''Société Clerget-Blin et Cie'') was a French precision engineering company formed in 1913 by the engineer and inventor Pierre Clerget and industrialist Eugène Blin. In 1939, the company was absorbed into the ' ...

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...

. It had a shallow

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

, with the wings joined by plank-like

interplane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of struts, which act in ...

s,Bruce 1965, p.11-12. similar to those used by the Sopwith Triplane. After evaluation at the

Central Flying School The Central Flying School (CFS) is the Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of military flying instructors. Established in 1912 at the Upavon Aerodrome, it is the longest existing flying training school in the world. The sch ...

in late 1916, a production order for 50 was placed by the RFC for a modified version, the F.K.10. The production F.K.10 had a new, deeper fuselage, and a new

tail The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...

, but retained the wing planform of the F.K.9. The F.K.10 showed inferior performance to the

Sopwith 1½ Strutter The Sopwith Strutter is a British single- or two-seat Multirole combat aircraft, multi-role biplane aircraft of the First World War.Lake 2002, p. 40. It was the first British two-seat tractor configuration, tractor fighter and the first Briti ...

, which was already in service as a successful two-seat fighter, and only five were built of the RFC order, with a further three built for the RNAS. They were not used operationally and the design was not developed further.Bruce 1965, p.13.

Variants

;F.K.9 :Prototype powered by 110 hp (80 kW) Clerget 9Z engine. ;F.K.10 :Production version with revised fuselage and tail, powered by 130 hp (100 kW) Clerget 9B or Le Rhône 9J engine. 50 ordered, 8 built.

Operators

; *

Specifications (F.K.10 (130 hp Clerget))

References

* * * {{Koolhoven aircraft F.K.10 F.K.10 1910s British fighter aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Quadruplanes Aircraft first flown in 1916 Rotary-engined aircraft

Development

Variants

Operators

Specifications (F.K.10 (130 hp Clerget))

See also

References