Capital Bus for a Crowd Like Us, A

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, a capital bus for a crowd like us was the old B.F.2B, When once we got up we could sell a pup to anything we could see." "I'm bound for some fun with a vertical Hun Ten thousand miles away." Unlikely stories of the air corps, bad food, getting lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook)
KEYWORDS: technology pilot derivative humorous cook | plane
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook, p. 22, "A Capital Bus for a Crowd Like Us" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Capital Ship" (tune)
NOTES [176 words]: According to Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Dictionary of the First World War, 1995 (I use the 2003 Pen & Sword paperback), p. 84, the Bristol F-2 fighter was a two-seat biplane introduced in the second half of 1916; the BF-2b came into service in mid-1917. When first introduced, it was not very successful, because the British hadn't yet worked out appropriate tactics for a model with both a forward-firing gun and an observer's gun, but eventually it "became the most successful aircraft of its type on the Western Front." Pope/Wheal give this "brief data" on the BF-2a: "Engine: 199hp Rolls-Royce Falcon; Max speed: 110 mph (176kph); Ceiling: 4.850m; Armament: 2 or 3x0.303 in mg [= machine gun]." The BF-2b had different engines, to 250hp or more, so it would have been a little faster.
There is a substantial Wikipedia article about the aircraft, which was useful enough to stay in service for years after the war. It has to be one of the very few cases of a plane designed for observation proving to be capable as a fighter aircraft! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: WJL022

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