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 Snapper Sopwith Snapper The Sopwith Snapper was a prototype British Fighter aircraft of the First World War. A single-engined biplane designed by the Sopwith Aviation Company to replace the Sopwith Snipe fighter, it first flew after the end of the war, but did not enter service owing to the failure of its engine, only three aircraft being built. In 1918, the British Air Ministry developed a requirement for a single-seat fighter to replace the Royal Air Force's Sopwith Snipes, even though the Snipe had yet to enter service. This requirement, RAF Type 1, specified the new ABC Dragonfly air-cooled radial engine,