Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus (replica) 2345 Royal Flying Corps
The Vickers company began thinking about air-to-air fighting in 1912, and came up with pusher aircraft to avoid firing at one’s own propeller. It went wrong in building two-seaters with a flexible gun, however, and the Gunbus, which first flew in July 1914 and first fought a German aircraft on Christmas Day, 1914, was too slow to be an effective fighter. As G-ATVP, this replica was captured in flight by fellow photographer Alex Christie in 1967. | Rob Vogelaar