Vickers F.B.5

At the outbreak of WWI aircraft were used primarally for ovservation, reconenance and message
delivery. Then some pilot took a shot at another pilot and, before you knew it, air-to-air combat was
born. The FIRST aircraft specifically designed and built to shoot down other aircraft was the British
Vickers F. B. 5 (F.B. standing for Fighting Biplane, Model 5) making it the First in many catagories.
First opporational fighter aircraft, first aircraft to shoot down another aircraft and fastest aircraft of it's
time just to mention a few. There were 224 F.B.5's (or "GUNBUS" as they were nicknamed) built,
although any serviving examples are surely in museums and not flying.