Bristol 129
In October 1931 the Air Ministry formally issued specification F7/30 for a four gun, 250mph capable day and night fighter to replace the Bristol Bulldog. That is the simple version as this specification which has been the thing of aeronautical myth and legend with the history books full of false facts. However, unless you are in to this stuff further explanation may result in losing the will to live so I’ll leave it there.
Bristol was quite happy to be supplying the RAF with its front line fighter and as can be expected wanted very much to be the supplier of the Bulldog replacement. Bristol produced several design studies taking on board various aspects of F7/30 requirements. One aspect the Air ministry were interested in was a pusher configuration monoplane design and Bristol proposed the Bristol type 129 which to be honest was a bit of a freak.
The 129 was a high wing monoplane of all metal construction other than the control surfaces but from here it seems to go backwards as the wings were not of the cantilever type but sat on top of the fuselage and required to bracing via a central mounted pylon. The undercarriage was large and spatted and was an integral part of the twin boom design. She was not the sprightly little Bulldog that’s for sure and would have been pretty large for a fighter of the day.
However the development was dropped quite early in favour of two other Bristol proposals, the types 127 and 128 which were both low wing cantilever monoplanes. The type 127 was my first choice to model and I may still build it but the 129 intrigued me.
Its design was somewhat anachronistic although various aspects were certainly based upon contemporary design. Its a sort of retro futuristic thing which appeals to me. However, and this is just my opinion, I wonder if in order to try and impress on the Air Ministry, Bristol were keen to investigate all the interests that F7/30 covered including the pusher type that they looked around at competitors for ideas perhaps.
I say this because the Bristol 129 is a dead ringer for a monoplane version of the Vickers 161. There was a single example of the Vickers 161 built and it first flew in January of 1931. Its purpose was to investigate the concept of mounting a large calibre upwards firing gun. Westland also had a go at the concept although with a tractor monoplane but development of the concept was dropped.
Anyway, specification F7/30 was “won” by the Gloster Gladiator. The Gladiator was a development of the Gauntlet which was ordered to initially replace the Bulldog. One squadron that operated the Gauntlet was No 19 based at Duxford. In June of 1935 they carried the blue/white checkered design and squadron crest on the tail so I thought it might be a grin to pretend that the Bristol 129 went into service and so my model shows an example in 19 Squadron livery.
As everyone knows, 19 squadron went on to replace the Gauntlet with the Supermarine Spitfire Mk1a in August 1938 being the first RAF squadron to fly the type. However, that is only on this time line as every small brown dog knows that in reality 19 Squadron replaced their Hawker Hounds with the Supermarine Spectre Mk1a buts that’s another story.
