Austin-Ball AFB 1

[AlfaMale]

Is there any information on how good the prototype AFB1 developed by Austin and Albert Ball was? Is there a feeling that Ball's death stalled the project when it was already competing with the SE5a for production facilities or was it simply not good enough to justify switching production?

Alfa

[centurion]

Ball did not develop the fighter, he provided suggestions to the designers and leant his name to it. His death threrefore was unlikely to have any great impact on the design and development activities. The aircraft was but one of a number of promising types that lost out because of the engine production crisis of the time (which in part was the result of an asinine refusal to grant Henry Royce permission to build new factories thus putting immense pressure on the demand for all inline engines including the Hispano Suiza) It wasn't that the AFB was a bad aircraft it just wasn't significantly better than the SE5a to justify allocation of scarce resources.

[AlfaMale]

Thanks once again, Centurion!

I believe I read elsewhere in this forum (one of your posts possibly?) that one of the reasons Henry Royce was refused permission to build more factories was that he'd designed the Eagle instead of the rotaries he was ordered to construct thereby incurred the wrath of the Whitehall mandarins. If this is so, I wonder how many RFC and RAF deaths were directly attributable to their pettiness?