Alcock
J.W. Alcock
Contents
History
John William Alcock first became interested in flying at the age of seventeen and in 1910 he became an assistant to Works Manager Charles Fletcher, an early Manchester aviator, and Norman Crossland, a motor engineer and founder of the Manchester Aero Club. As a Captain in the Royal Air Force in 1917, while stationed at Moudros, on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea, he conceived of and built a fighter aircraft out of the remains of other crashed aircraft. This came to be known as the Alcock Scout. Alcock was never to fly it as he was taken prisoner in September 1917, before the completion of the machine. It first flew in October, 1917, but was wrecked early in 1918.
Company References
- British Aeroplanes 1914-18, J.M. Bruce (Putnam, 1957)
Project Data
| Project No | Type No | Name | Alternative Name(s) | Year | Spec (Requirement) | Status | Qty | Description | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A.1 | Scout | 1917 | Proto | 1 | 1S, 1E biplane fighter | 1,2,3,4,5 |
Project References
- British Aeroplanes 1914-18,, J.M. Bruce (Putnam, 1957)
- Warplanes of the First World War: Fighters, Vol.1, J.M. Bruce (McDonald, 1965)
- British Fighter Since 1912, Francis K. Mason (Putnam 1992)
- British Naval Aircraft since 1912 Owen Thetford (Putnam, 1978)
- British Aircraft of WWI Volume 7 - Experimental Fighters Part 3, Colin A Owers (Aeronaut Books, 2023)
Production Details and Type Description
The aircraft was built from the forward fuselage and lower wings of a Sopwith Triplane, the upper wings of a Sopwith Pup and the tailplane and elevators of a Sopwith Camel, married to a rear fuselage and vertical tail surface of original design. Fitted with a single .303 Vickers machine gun. One 110-h.p. Clerget 9Z powerplant.
| A.1 Scout Specification | |||||
| Span | Length | Height | Wing Area | Empty Wt | Max AUW |
| 24 ft 3 in | 19 ft 1 in | 7 ft 9 in | |||
| 7.39 m | 5.82 m | 2.36 m | |||
One aircraft only; no c/n or serial.
Total Alcock Production1
Page Revision History
Revised at Version 2.0.0- Added Type Description and Specification details.