Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 was a British biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. It was developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory by a team consisting of Henry Folland, John Kenworthy and Major Frank Goodden. It was one of the fastest aircraft of the war, while being both stable and relatively manoeuvrable. According to aviation author Robert Jackson, the S.E.5 was: "the nimble fighter that has since been described as the 'Spitfire of World War One'". In most respects the S.E.5 had superior performance to the rival Sopwith Camel, both aircraft being capable dogfighters
Sopwith Atlantic flying boats, with John Cyril Porte selected to be the pilot, the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 put a stop to these plans. Following the Armistice ending the War on 11 November 1918, the competition was reopened, Thomas Sopwith, the head of the Sopwith Aviation Company decided to build an aircraft to compete for the prize. George Carter of Sopwith-based his design for the transatlantic aircraft on the single-engined Sopwith B.1 bomber aircraft. It was a large, two-bay biplane powered by a Rolls-Royce Eagle engine in a tractor configuration. It had a deeper fuselage than the