That's a fair point Pbehn. Planned to become a scout it would have encountered problems as you say. Still, as Peter Lewis says "a masterpiece of early aeroplane design".
I particularly like the celluloid hood - although the pilots didn't...
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The SE4 was high performing in terms of speed but in no way a serviceable military aircraft
Author John WR Taylor said aircraft performance didn't advance in ww1?
I would say it did!
It depends on how you draw conclusions, to have military vehicles with all equipment matching the performance of your fastest research vehicle in less than four years is outstanding in my opinion, about the same as WW2 excluding jets. When war broke out the UK had 33 military planes and I don't believe any carried guns.I think he was referring to the 135mph figure.
The 320BHP Dragonfly motor shows how much progress was made compared to the previously mentioned SE-4 it has twice the power of the unreliable Gnome twin row rotary engine it set the record with and three times the power of the reliable Gnome monosoupapeThe Illustrated encyclopedia of 20th century weapons and warfare, Volume 8, page 787:
"A re-engineed version of the Sopwith Snipe, the Dragon was intended to use the 320-hp Dragonfly radial motor; at that period still not fully proven. The first true Dragon was Snipe airframe E7990, fitted with the new engine in July 1918"
If it only hit the 149 after the war then I agree it does not belong, however if it did and the question was fastest combat aircraft, not fastest aircraft used in combat I would think it applies.
About the same in WW2 from 1000BHP to 2000BHP for the Merlin with the biggest getting 2500-3000BHP in 1945That really is amazing, and in a relatively short time span
The Illustrated encyclopedia of 20th century weapons and warfare, Volume 8, page 787:
The first true Dragon was Snipe airframe E7990, fitted with the new engine in July 1918".
Yep, and 0 to 4000lb bomb load (Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI) is hardlyno progress either...I agree.
Top speed is only a fraction of development. And speeds doubled in a very short space of time and bombload and range.
Development was phenomenal and to say there was limited development is mind boggling. Even a 10mph difference is still a large percentage.