I’m thinking Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 / Harry Tate?
Although I though it had been operated by more than just the UK & Belgium…
That’s the bird!
My maternal grandfather served in the RAF in WWI (RFC became RAF in 1918) as a mechanic on the R.E.8. I can still remember his comments about the “Harry Tate”, but it took a few years to understand what he meant. Harry Tate was a popular “Music Hall” entertainer at the time of WWI. You slang rhyme RE8 into Harry Tate.
It replaced the B.E.2 but was held with alot of suspicions by its crew. Initially the tail had to be enlarged to reduce its maunverability as the initial version responded very quickly, too quickly for these crews. It also saw its first service during “Bloody April” where an entire squadron was shot out of the air, not helping crew opinion of the aircraft. By the end of the war you had the Bristol fighter and DH-4, DH-9, etc. that were considered superior to this aircraft and it went away.
Mike T.
Cheers!
Slightly OT, but I’ve been luck enough to have seen Shuttleworth’s S.E.5 perform on more than one occasion & it puts on quite an impressive show - not bad considering the actual aircraft is heading towards being 100 year old!
The Question;
This aircraft is nicknamed by it’s operators as the “Cowboy”. It’s quite a large aircraft & gets it’s nickname thanks to its armament?
That part of the question was wrong.
Operated by Australia, Belgium, Estonia, Soviet Union and UK.
Sorry, just a nit-pik. Thats what made me think it wasnt the R.E.8.
Scorpiomikey
We could get very picky and add alot of countries here, but the UK and Belgium were the only ones that purchased the RE8 for their own use.
Some of our Aussie friends may get uptight about this, but until 1931 Australia was legally considered a colony of the UK, and their forces during WWI were supplied from British stocks. The Australian Flying Corps was formed as part of the armed forces of the British Empire via the Imperial Conference of 1911 and was part of the First Australian Imperial Force, i.e. the Australian Army until 1919. Australia was the only colony to create the forces authorized by that conference. Even though they were raised and officered by Australians they fell under the overall British Imperial Command and therefore they were part of the UK at that time.
Estonia and the Soviet Union obtained RE8’s through the 1919 intervention by the British against the newly formed Soviet Union. We should then include the White Russian forces as operating them (through British stocks) and also Poland (captured a Soviet one in the 1920-21 War). The Soviet aircraft were captured from the White Russians and the British expeditionary force. I am not sure where Estonia got theirs, but I would assume that they were also among the 100 the Britsh initially operated during that operation and were left behind.
The question of captured aircraft being operated can take many of our questions in different directions, in this case the ownership of the aircraft were either British or Belgium, nobody else purchased any. I am sorry that it took your thoughts away from the subject I had in mind, Wikipedia can do that.
Mike T.
Edit: Check Wikipedia’s entry for the Gotha V shows only German Imperial use. Poland operated a few until the late 1920’s but they aren’t listed. they received them from stocks of aircraft left over from WWI.
In which case you should have said purchased rather than operated. but im not gonna get hung up on wording. on to the next question, forget i said anything.
F-8 Crusader?
No, not the F-8.
This aircraft doesn’t come from the Wild West.
A cowboy or gunslinger the likes of Hex, Wales or the Lone Ranger typically carries less weapons than the F-8 carried - think of the mechanism of the weapon, the number carried & the total rounds you would expect loaded into the weapons of the above characters.
This aircraft would pose no immediate threat to the F-8 & other than being lucky, or in the right time at the right place the F-8 would pose little threat to this aircraft. In reality a US F-8 would never have had the chance to go against this aircraft, although a French one may.
The A-10 Thinderbolt II?
Brian [cwby]
No, it’s not American & the A-10’s got a gun / weapon to few.
Mi-24?
No. This aircraft is called the cowboy because it carries two revolving six shots?
“Large”? I’d tell AO-11L Bronco II. Hint?
Cruciform empennage?
Operated by two countries in total, one which withdrew it from service because of maintenance & financial reasons?
CF-100 Canuck?
F-14 Tomcat? It’s the only aircraft I know of only operated by 2 countries (Iran and USA), and was withdrawn for cost reasons (US).
With 6 Aim-54s
The aircraft is not a US aircraft. Has two revolver style mechanism, possible location is either Europe or the Middle East
[Y]
It can’t defend itself from an F-8 because it has no defensive armament.
An F-8 would have to be lucky, because this aircraft is faster.
A US F-8 would never have come across it because they didn’t serve at the same time.
A French F-8 might have come across because they it did serve at the same time.
It carries two revolving six shooters.
I’m guessing it’s not the Orao/Vultur (as it’s subsonic), or a MiG-31 as the armament is not entirely right.