The aircraft of WWI did not have electronic ignitions and the method of getting the engine running was similar to how you would start a manual car by putting it in gear, rolling it down the hill, and the dumping the clutch. The difference was ground crew would swing the propeller to engage the engine. But 180hp and 200hp engines have a great deal of compression; and it often took more than the muscle of one person to get the propeller turning.

Richard Williams writes that hand starting was practical for the 90hp and 160hp engines in the BE2 and Martinsyde's but the 200hp engines of the squadron's Bristol Fighter meant hand-starting was difficult. The Bristol Fighter and SE5a were fitted with magneto type self starters. Williams describes it:

An explosive charge was drawn into the engine cylinders by rotating the airscrew by hand and that having been done the ignition was switched on and a small magneto type apparatus was rotated to create a spark in the cylinders and fire the charge.

When Williams took over 40 Wing RFC he noticed that the aircrew of No.111 Squadron RFC were still hand starting the SE5a. He writes:

It was obvious the mechanics felt the same way [as Williams who wouldn't have liked to hand start a 200hp engine] and I asked the squadron commander why it was being done. He said the starters were useless.

We had gone through this in No.1 Squadron [AFC] and had found that when properly adjusted the starter was very good. I was able to arrange attachment of No.1 Squadron's senior electrician to the SE squadrons, starters were properly adjusted and swinging the airscrew by hand was stopped to the delight of the little chaps who had been doing it. Most of them really were little chaps.

The photo at the top of this article is of an SE5a squadron in Palestine. It is likely this picture was taken before Williams and No.1 Squadron's Electricians spent time with No.111 Squadron.

Another solution, in the ongoing absence of an electrical starter, was to make a mechanical one. The Hucks Starter was one such solution. It hooked up to a truck and rotated the propeller mechanically, substituting mechanical power for human power.

However the Hucks starter had similar limitations to hand starting and could not deal easily with the increasing compression of more powerful engines as horsepower output grew.

More Reading on Se5a

• SE5a
• Hucks Starter
• Magneto Type Self Starters
• Richard Williams
• No.1 Sqn AFC
• No.111 Sqn RFC
• Swinging The Prop
• Roy Phillipps and No 2 Sqn AFC
• Comparison of 1918 Performance Between Fighter Aircraft
• Les Holden's Red Devil
• 6 Sqn Australian Flying Corps to 6 Sqn RAAF
• Red SE5a of the Australian Flying Corps