RAF FE2b

This large two-seater reconnaissance pusher biplane first entered service in Autumn 1915 and continued in production well after the last of the guns had fallen silent on 11 November 1918 – a rare achievement. It may have waged a dangerous, unglamorous war, but the sturdy ‘Fee’ occupies an important place in early aviation history and in the annals of air warfare its position remains equally secure. Whether conducting artillery spotting, bombing, reconnaissance and, even when pressed, fighter operations, FE2b crews were among their RFC’s most redoubtable. The ‘Fee’, together with the DH2, did much to counter the threat of Fokker’s Eindeckers and even against more modern German fighters would prove itself to be a formidable adversary.