It was designed as a single-seat aircraft, with the pilot sitting in a cockpit under the wing centre section to give a good view forwards and downwards for bombing.
Once in France, the unwanted B.1 was acquired by the British Royal Naval Air Service, given the serial number N.50 and issued to 5 Squadron, RNAS, on 16 May 1917 for operational evaluation.
[4] Fitted with a single forward-firing Lewis gun, the B.1 was flown on a number of bombing raids against targets in German-occupied Belgium.
While its performance was praised, it was again noted that the B.1 was tiring to fly, and that the lack of manoeuvrability or any useful defensive armament meant that it was vulnerable to hostile fighters.
The initial attempts at modifying the aircraft were not successful, but the B.1 formed the basis of the Port Victoria Grain Griffin, a major redesign of the B.1 with new wings and a wider fuselage.