Westland Wagtail Westland Wagtail The Westland Wagtail was a prototype British fighter aircraft of the First World War. A single-engined tractor biplane, the Wagtail was a failure owing to the unreliability of its engine, only five being built. The Westland Wagtail was designed by Westland Aircraft of Yeovil in 1917 to meet the Royal Air Force Specification IA for a light fighter with superior performance to the Sopwith Camel. Westland's design team, led by Robert Bruce, the Company's manager and Arthur Davenport, Chief Draughtsman, came up with a design for a small single bay biplane, powered (like the other competitors for the
Sopwith Three-seater of a Coventry Ordnance Works biplane. and powered by a 70 hp (52 kW) Gnome Gamma rotary engine. The resulting aircraft, known as the Hybrid, first flew on 4 July 1912. The Hybrid was rebuilt in October 1912 and sold to the British Admiralty, being delivered in November 1912. When the Admiralty tendered further orders for an improved tractor biplane based on the design,Sopwith created the Sopwith Aviation Company, with a factory in a disused roller rink at Kingston upon Thames. The resulting aircraft, known variously as the Three-Seat Tractor Biplane, the Sopwith 80 hp Biplane, the Sopwith D1, or