Description

In the 1912 Military Aeroplane Competition, the B.E.2 outperformed all its competitors; it was put into production and quickly became the most numerous single type in the Royal Flying Corps. B.E.2c, a later variant nicknamed the ‘Quirk’ by its pilots, was designed for stability and intended mainly for reconnaissance. Matched against the German Fokker Eindecker fighter in the First World War, it was hopelessly outclassed. The Eindecker, piloted by top scoring German aces such as Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, made short work of the B.E.2c in the aerial bloodbath known as the ‘Fokker Scourge’. Such was the B.E.2c’s vulnerability to fighter attack that the British press dubbed it ‘Fokker Fodder’, while to the Germans it was known as ‘Kaltes Fleisch’ or ‘Cold Meat’. British ace Albert Ball called it ‘a bloody terrible aeroplane’. The B.E.2c slogged on throughout the War, and its poor performance against German fighters – and the failure to improve or replace it – caused great controversy in Britain. One MP attacked the B.E.2c and the Royal Aircraft Factory in the House of Commons, stating that RFC pilots were being ‘murdered [rather] than killed’. The factory was cleared in the resultant judicial inquiry, but the woeful shortcomings of the RFC were exposed, heralding the establishment of the Royal Air Force.