gunner's seat and the exhaust system. The tall inverted vee radiators incorporated improved tubes which reduced the blockages. On later aircraft the nose cowling was redesigned and smaller box radiators were standardised. In service the F.K.8 (nicknamed the "Big Ack") proved to be effective and dependable, being used for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, ground-attack, contact-patrol and day and night bombing. It was reputedly easier to fly than the R.E.8 and was sturdier but its performance was even more pedestrian and it shared the inherent stability of the Royal Aircraft Factory types. While the pilot and observer were placed reasonably close together, communication between the two lacked the "tap on the shoulder" intimacy of the Bristol Fighter (or the R.E.8 for that matter). The F.K.13 seems to have been the name of a reconnaissance version of the F.K.8 but it may have been no more than a project. A total of 1,650 of the standard F.K.8 were built. Operational history The first squadron to take the type to France was 35 Squadron RFC, in January 1917. The type eventually served with several squadrons on operations in France, Macedonia, Palestine and for home defence, proving more popular in service than its better known contemporary the R.E.8. The F.K.8 was principally used for corps reconnaissance but was also used for light bombing, being capable of carrying up to six 40 lb (20 kg) phosphorus smoke bombs, up to four 65 lb (29 kg) bombs or two 112 lb (51 kg) bombs on underwing racks. Two Victoria Crosses were won by pilots of F.K.8s; one by Second Lieutenant Alan Arnett McLeod of No. 2 Squadron RFC, on 27 March 1918 and the second by Captain Ferdinand Maurice Felix West of No. 8 Squadron RAF on 10 August 1918. With the R.E.8, the F.K.8 was scheduled to be replaced for corps reconnaissance by a version of the Bristol Fighter with a Sunbeam Arab engine. Unfortunately the engine was unsatisfactory and this version of the Bristol never saw service. Like the R.E.8, the F.K.8 was quickly discarded with the end of the war – the last squadron, No. 150 Squadron RAF, being disbanded at Kirec in Greece on 18 September 1919. One F.K.8 was purchased by a pilot named Sydney Stewart in the early 1920s, who took the aircraft to Buenos Aires and gave flying lessons. There he met Francisco Cusmanich, a Paraguayan pilot. Stewart and Cusmanich