To mark the 100th anniversary of the Bristol Fighter’s first flight on 9th September 1916, Aerospace Bristol has today announced plans to bring a Bristol Fighter home to Filton.

After being recovered from a barn in Oxfordshire in 1965, the Fighter that Aerospace Bristol plans to bring home was sold to a new owner in North America. The museum has now purchased the airframe, and restoration work, including a new set of wings, is currently underway in Massachusetts, readying the Fighter for a return to Bristol.

The Bristol Fighter - or "Brisfit" - was a World War One two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft, designed by Frank Barnwell of the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company. The agile aircraft proved to be a formidable opponent for German fighters; its fixed forward-firing Vickers gun being used as the primary weapon by the pilot and the rear mounted Lewis gun operated by the Observer/Gunner providing protection to the side and rear. Over 5,000 Bristol Fighters were produced at Filton, and by airframe subcontractors around the country. The aircraft remained in military service until the 1930s.

Aerospace Bristol is now raising money to bring the restored Fighter home. If you would like to play your part in rescuing the Bristol Fighter and contribute to this special project then please contact us for more information.

Opening in summer 2017, Aerospace Bristol will inspire young people to consider careers in science, technology and engineering. The museum will bring together nationally-significant exhibits and hidden archive records to tell over one hundred years of history for the first time. The show-stopping centrepiece will be Concorde 216. Designed, built and tested in Bristol, she was the final Concorde to be built and the last to fly.

Aerospace Bristol to bring home the Bristol Fighter