The Bristol Boarhound was a British army cooperation and

liaison aircraft A liaison aircraft (also called an army cooperation aircraft) is a small, usually unarmed aircraft primarily used by military forces for artillery observation or transporting commanders and messages. Operation The concept developed before Worl ...

of the 1920s. It was a two-seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

with wings of equal span and a steel frame construction with fabric covering.

Design and development

The Boarhound was built as a private venture under

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

Specification 8/24 (later superseded by Specification 20/25) for an Army cooperation aircraft to replace the Bristol Fighter, first flying on 8 June 1925 as the Type 93 Boarhound. The Boarhound, designed by

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Frank Barnwell, was a two-bay biplane which used a method of

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

construction which involved high-tensile steel strips rolled into cusped and flanged sections, which were riveted together to form

longeron In engineering, a longeron or stringer is a load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural fram ...

s and struts. The resulting structure was lighter, stronger, and cheaper than one made from drawn tubes. It had a deep

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 ...

allowing bulky radio and camera equipment to be carried, and was powered by a

Bristol Jupiter The Bristol Jupiter is a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine that was built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developme ...

IV engine with variable timing. The Boarhound was evaluated alongside the

Armstrong Whitworth Atlas The Armstrong Whitworth Atlas was a British single-engine biplane designed and built by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. It served as an army co-operation aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the 1920s and 1930s. It was the first purpose-desi ...

de Havilland Hyena The de Havilland DH.56 Hyena was a prototype British army cooperation aircraft of the 1920s. A single-engined biplane, the Hyena was designed against an RAF requirement, but was unsuccessful with only two being built, the Armstrong Whitworth A ...

and

Vickers Vespa The Vickers Vespa was a British army cooperation biplane designed and built by Vickers Limited in the 1920s. While not adopted by Britain's Royal Air Force, small numbers were bought by the Irish Free State and Bolivia, the latter of which used ...

. The Jupiter's variable timing gear gave poorer power at low altitudes, a disadvantage for an army cooperation aircraft, and the Atlas was considered superior. The Directors of Bristol decided, however, to continue development of the aircraft as a private venture for a general-purpose

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

to replace the

Airco DH.9A The Airco DH.9A is a British single-engined light bomber that was designed and first used shortly before the end of the First World War. It was a development of the unsuccessful Airco DH.9 bomber, featuring a strengthened structure and, cruciall ...

. A second aircraft was therefore built, the Type 93A Beaver, which flew on 23 February 1927. This was rejected in favour of the

Fairey III The Fairey Aviation Company Fairey III was a family of British reconnaissance biplanes that enjoyed a very long production and service history in both landplane and seaplane variants. First flying on 14 September 1917, examples were still in u ...

F, which used the preferred

Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 engine, W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept ...

engine, of which large numbers were in store. The Boarhound I (registered G-EBLG) and the Beaver (registered G-EBQF) were withdrawn from use at

Filton Aerodrome Filton Airport or Filton Aerodrome was a private airport in Filton and Patchway, within South Gloucestershire, north of Bristol, England. Description The airfield was bounded by the A38 road to the east, and the former London to Avonmout ...

in April 1927. A further two aircraft were produced as

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

fighters as the Type 93B Boarhound II.

Operational history

The only two Boarhound IIs ever built were sold to Mexico in 1928 and were used against rebel forces in April 1929. The Boarhounds proved successful in Mexican service, their metal structure proving suitable for the climate. Two legends of the Mexican Air Force flew the Boarhound II: Pablo Sidar and Alfonso Cruz Rivera.

Variants

;Type 93 Boarhound :Army cooperation aircraft, powered by a Jupiter IV engine. One built ;Type 93A Beaver :General-purpose aircraft. One built. ;Type 93B Boarhound II :Fighter-reconnaissance aircraft for Mexico, powered by 450 hp (340 kW) Jupiter VI engine. Two built.

Operators

; *

Mexican Air Force The Mexican Air Force (FAM; ) is the air service branch of the Mexican Armed Forces. It is a component of the Mexican Army and as such overseen by the National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA). The objective of the FAM is to defend the integrity, in ...

;

Specifications (Boarhound I)

Notes

References

* Donald, David, and Lake, Jon, eds. ''Encyclopedia of World Military Aircraft''. London: AIRtime Publishing, 1996. .

External links

Bristol Boarhound
– British Aircraft Directory
The Transport Archive – Bristol Boarhound
{{Bristol aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft 1920s British military utility aircraft Boarhound Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1925