British Aircraft distribution Western Front 1917

[john snelling]

A so-so compliment to Daryl's excellent work.

31 Dec 1916
01-27 Nieuport 17
28-36 Spad VII
37-54 DH2
55-72 FE8
73-90 Pup
91-100 Triplane

28 Feb 1917
01-31 Nieuport 17
32-44 Spad VII
45-57 DH2
58-63 Fe8
64-89 Pup
90-100 Triplane

30 Apr 1917
01-26 Nieuport 17
27-36 Spad VII
37-46 DH2
47-51 Fe8
52-74 Pup
75-79 Bristol F2
80-84 SE5
85-100 Triplane

30 Jun 1917
01-18 Nieuport 17
19-27 Bristol F2
28-36 Spad VII
37-49 DH5
50-73 Camel
74-87 Pup
88-91 SE5a
92-100 Triplane

31 Aug 1917
01-11 Nieuport 24
12-47 Camel
48-64 Bristol F2
65-68 Spad XIII
69-72 Spad VII
73-81 DH5
82-90 Pup
91-96 SE5a
97-100 Triplane

31 Oct 1917
01-10 Nieuport 27
11-23 Bristol F2
24-29 Spad XIII
30-71 Camel
72-84 DH5
85-87 Pup
88-97 SE5a
98-100 Triplane

31 Dec 1917
01-28 SE5a
29-76 Camel
77-91 Bristol F2
92-97 Spad XIII
98-100 Nieuport 27

[gully_raker]

Interesting stats there John.

[ReducedAirFact]

John: Nice! What did you use as the source[s]?

[john snelling]

John: Nice! What did you use as the source[s]?

I collected through out the years data of aircraft usage on every British Squadron. I only used the data from fighter squadrons used in France at the time. One obscure standard was that I assumed all fighter squadrons used the same number of aircraft and that they used the most modern aircraft available if the data was conflicted.

for example:
8N/208--- Oct16-Jan17 Pup/Feb17-Aug17 Triplane/Sep17-EOW Camel
9N/209--- Feb17-Jun17 Pup/Jul17-EOW Camel
10N/210-- Feb17-Jun17 Triplane/Jul17-EOW Camel
23--------- FEb17-Nov17 SpadVII/Dec17-Mar18 SpadXIII/Apr18-EOW Dolphin

Then I just broke down by date the number of squadrons that used the Camel, SE5A, etc then put it into a percentage.
Example
30Jun1917
Nieuport 17/4 (was used by 4 squadrons)
SpadVII/2
DH5/3
Camel/5
Pup/3
SE5a/1
Triplane/2
Bristol F2/2
totaling 22 then producing a percentage

Here is the rest for 1918

28 Feb 1918
01-28 SE5a
29-74 Camel
75-88 Bristol F2
89-94 Dolphin
95-97 Spad XIII
98-100 Nieuport 27

30 Apr/30Jun/31Aug not many changes at this time
01-32 SE5a
33-74 Camel
75-92 Bristol F2
93-100 Dolphin

31 Oct
01-32 SE5a
33-68 Camel
69-74 Snipe
75-92 Bristol F2
93-100 Dolphin

This method does not work for 1915/1916 because the British had spread out their fighters in non-fighter squadrons. Also I had to take into account the primary usage of the aircraft. One was the handsome G.100 Elephant was built originally as a long range, single-seat fighter and escort machine but on the basis of its size and weight was reclassified as a day bomber and the FE2 that used for many purposes I did not count them as fighters.

[Naharaht]

Thank you for doing all this research, John.

[Doug]

Thanks very helpful.

[john snelling]

Thanks very helpful.

UR welcome. I enjoyed doing the stats. Finally I got to use all the data collection.