The Sunbeam Bomber was a prototype single-engined, single seat bomber aircraft of 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 ...

. Only one example flew as the type proved to be unsuccessful and was abandoned.

Design and development

Following the outbreak of the

, the

Sunbeam Motor Car Company Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited was a British automobile manufacturer in operation between 1905 and 1934. Its works were at Moorfields in Blakenhall, a suburb of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, now West Midlands. The Sunbeam name had origin ...

became a major supplier of licence-built aircraft for the

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 ...

(RNAS), in addition to its existing work as a designer and builder of aero-engines and motor vehicles.Bruce 1957, p. 637.Mason 1994, p. 83. In November 1916, a requirement for a single-engined, single-seat bomber was issued on behalf of the RNAS,Bruce 2001, p. 4. and when Sunbeam decided to design an aircraft to respond to this specification, it received an order for two prototypes from the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Tra ...

. Sunbeam's design was a two-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

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 ...

of conventional

tractor configuration In aviation, a tractor configuration is a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft with its engine mounted with the propeller in front, so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. This is the usual configuration; the pusher configuration ...

. It was powered by one of Sunbeam's own

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...

s rated at and driving a two-bladed propeller. The aircraft's fuel tanks were located in the fuselage at the aircraft's

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For a ...

, which resulted in the pilot's cockpit being well behind the wings (and behind the nose). Racks for three 100 lb (45 kg) bombs were fitted under the wings, while a single forward-firing synchronized

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

was mounted above the aircraft's engine.Bruce 1957, pp. 637–638. The first prototype,

serial number A serial number (SN) is a unique identifier used to ''uniquely'' identify an item, and is usually assigned incrementally or sequentially. Despite being called serial "numbers", they do not need to be strictly numerical and may contain letters ...

''N515'' first flew at

Castle Bromwich Castle Bromwich () is a large suburban village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands, England. It borders the rest of the borough to the south east, Sutton Coldfield to the east and north east, Shard E ...

in late 1917, but exhibited a number of problems. The Puma engine, despite being ordered in large numbers, was unreliable and suffered from severe vibration, which considerably delayed service testing. The aircraft's layout, with the pilot sitting so far aft, gave him a poor view, and sitting away from the Vickers gun, could no nothing to resolve any gun stoppage. When eventually formally tested, in August 1918, it proved to be heavier and carry fewer bombs than the private venture

Sopwith B.1 The Sopwith B.1 was an experimental British bomber aircraft of the First World War. A single-seat, single-engined biplane, the B.1 was built by the Sopwith Aviation Company for the Royal Navy. Although only two were built, one was used for bom ...

of similar concept. The second prototype was abandoned before it was completed, and no orders were placed either for the Sunbeam or the Sopwith,Mason 1994, pp. 82–83. which were incapable of defending themselves against attacking enemy fightersBruce 2001, p.5. Existing two-seat aircraft such as the

Airco DH.4 The Airco DH.4 is a British two-seat biplane day bomber of the First World War. It was designed by Geoffrey de Havilland (hence "DH") for Airco, and was the first British two-seat light day-bomber capable of defending itself. It was desig ...

better met the RNAS's (and later the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

's) requirements.Mason 1994, p. 81.

Specifications

Notes

References

* * * {{refend 1910s British bomber aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1917

Design and development

Specifications

See also

Notes

References