The F.1 was designed as a fighter for the Royal Flying Corps and it was a large tractor biplane powered by a 2500NaN0 Rolls-Royce Mk III piston engine. It had two tandem open cockpits with unusually the observer forward and the pilot behind. A rectangular aperture was cut-out of the upper wing above the observer's cockpit which would allow the observer to use a gun.[1] It was tested at Martlesham Heath in July 1917, where it demonstrated good handling but was criticised for the awkward crew arrangement.[1] It was not ordered into production and only one prototype (of two ordered) was built. It continued in use at Farnborough until after the end of the war.