On a reconnaissance mission deep in enemy territory, a lone Bristol pilot and observer encountered nine German planes. Taking the offensive, they somehow managed to destroy four of them and cripple another, but their Bristol lost its guns during the fight. Playing dead, the pilot dove toward earth. He made it home flying barely 20 feet above the ground through 60 miles of enemy gunfire. The pilot was Canadian Maj. Andrew E. McKeever, his observer Lt. L. F. Powell, and that November 30, 1917, they made aerial fighting history. In spite of his youth and inexperience, McKeever had contended and then proved that the Bristol should be maneuvered as a fighter rather than a reconnaissance plane. Both men were decorated for the exploit, McKeever receiving the Distinguished Service Order.

Andy McKeever referred to his Bristol F.2B as a pilot’s plane. Its armament consisted of a Vickers synchronized machine gun concealed beneath the engine cowling and one or two Lewis guns mounted on the observer’s cockpit. Powered by one of several engines—a 200-hp Sunbeam Arab, a 200-hp Hispano-Suiza, or a 275-hp Rolls-Royce Falcon III—the Bristol reached a top speed of 125 mph.

McKeever, the ace who had revolutionized two-seater fighting tactics on the Western Front, died in a 1919 auto accident at the age of 24. The Bristol he made famous survived much longer, serving in Royal Air Force training units until 1932.