Vickers F.B.25

The Vickers F.B.25 was a British two-seat night fighter prototype of World War I designed to attack enemy airships.

Completed in 1917, it failed in its official flight tests that year and no order for production resulted.

The pusher configuration was obsolete however, compared to prospective tractor aircraft such as the Bristol F.2 Fighter, which was both faster than the estimated performance of the F.B.23 and carried a heavier armament, so Vickers abandoned the F.B.23 without an example being built.

[1] Vickers reworked the F.B.23 to form the basis of a two-seat night-fighter, the F.B.25, to compete with the Royal Aircraft Factory N.E.1 to meet a British requirement for a night fighter capable of attacking German airships.

Its nacelle was mounted between the wings, was unusually wide for an aircraft of its type in its day, and accommodated the two-man crew, a pilot and a gunner, in staggered side-by-side seats, with the gunner's seat ahead and to starboard of the pilot's.