SE.5a question

All three, I’d suggest. He disliked the greenhouse because it sent up ‘ripples’ of airstream that hurt his eyes, as he flew without helmet or goggles.

yes but more importantly…the a/c looked much nicer without the big screen 😀
Seriously I agree that the big screen was of no use for combat flying,for reasons of drag,visibility and turbulence.

cheers baz

All three, I’d suggest. He disliked the greenhouse because it sent up ‘ripples’ of airstream that hurt his eyes, as he flew without helmet or goggles.

Or quite possibly removing unneccesary weight/drag…?

I’ll stand corrected, but I thought Albert Ball removed a lot of what he considered to be ‘ancilliary’ items added by the Royal Aircraft Factory, including the fairing and the ‘glasshouse’ windscreen.

Better rearward visibility without headrest fairing ??

cheers baz

I’ll stand corrected, but I thought Albert Ball removed a lot of what he considered to be ‘ancilliary’ items added by the Royal Aircraft Factory, including the fairing and the ‘glasshouse’ windscreen.

Even between serial number batches there is a mix of a/c sans headrest. A note on the drawings in the Air britain SE.5 file just says “headrest often removed”

John

Looking at the Profile Publications on the SE5 and SE5A it seems that many of them came out of the factory without fairings behind the cockpit.

Dave