In the squadrons various modifications were made, often to the taste of individual pilots.
Many preferred to remove the headrest; some liked to cut the cockpit lower at the sides; No. 24 Squadron reduced the dihedral of their aircraft for a time.
Of more general application was the addition of stay-wires to the leading edge of the fin.
During 1918 the S.E.5a consolidated the fine reputation it had established, in spite of engine troubles, in 1917, and proved to be one of the best fighting aircraft of the war.
It was stable yet light on the controls, steady in a dive and a good gun platform, structurally strong and fast enough to be able to extricate itself from trouble if need be.
Many of the greatest fighting pilots—Mannock, Bishop, McCudden, Beauchamp-Proctor, McElroy, Maxwell —flew the SE. with great distinction.
Of the S.E., McCudden wrote:
"The S.E.5 (sic) which I was now flying was a most efficient fighting machine, far and away superior to the enemy machines of that period . . .
Other good points of the S.E.S were its great strength, its diving and zooming powers, and its splendid view. Apart from this, it was a most warm,
comfortable and easy machine to fly . . . prisoners said that the German pilots considered the S.E.5 a most formidable fighting machine."
(Five years in the Royal Flying Corps.)
At the time of the Armistice some 2,700 S.E.s were on the strength of the Royal Air Force, and the type was in service with twenty British, one Australian and two American operational squadrons.
Large-scale production in America was planned.
Components of fifty-six S.E.5a’s (including C1115, C1119—C1121, C8740, C8746, C8749, C8750, C8752—C8754, C908], C9087—C9089, D6101, D6102, D6105, D6109—D6112) were sent to the U.S.A., where they were assembled by the Curtiss company.
Curtiss had a contract for 1,000 S.E.5a’s to be powered by the 180 hp. Wright-Martin Hispano-Suiza, but only one, S.C.43153, was completed.
Its official tests began on August 20th 1918, but no more were built and the remaining 999 were cancelled at the Armistice.
In October 1918 the American Expeditionary Force bought thirty-eight S.E.5a’s.
When peace came the S.E.5a continued in service in the air forces of Australia, Canada and South Africa.
Some remained in use in the U.S.A., but they were largely supplanted by the Eberhardt conversion, the S.E.5E.
Two S.E.5a’s went to the US. Navy, however, with the designating numbers A-5588 and A45589; one was carried on a gun-turret launching platform on the battleship Mississippi.
A few went to Poland and were used against Russia in 1920; at least one was Captured and flown with the red-star insignia.
Nowhere was the type numerous, however.
In Britain a few remained in service at the R.A.E. for several years, and fifty acquired civil identities.
Some of the R.A.E. aircraft had a modified undercarriage with steel-tube V-struts and a separate axle for each wheel.
The civil S.E.5a is perhaps best remembered as the pioneer skywriting aircraft, and it is one of these that was rebuilt in 1959 and is flying today.
Originally F904, subsequently G-EBIA and now D7000, it is the only surviving airworthy example of this great fighting aeroplane.
In the Australian War Museum at Canberra A2—4 is preserved; it has an oleo undercarriage.
The true identity of the S.E.5a in the Science Museum, South Kensington, is F938 (ex G-EBIB); and F937 (ex G-EBIC) survives as one of the Nash collection.
Only one development of the S.E.5a was flown.
This was the S.E.5b which had sesquiplane wings and a cleaned-up engine installation with underslung radiator.
It appeared at the beginning of April 1918 and was flown experimentally at Farnborough for a few years.
It was later fitted with standard S.E.5a wings of equal span.
