DW Aviation DW.I

The Aircraft Disposal Co Ltd was selling off refurbished ex-RAF SE.5s. Inspired by the potential of the S.E.5a just as had McCudden and others before him, Dudley Watt rebuilt his machine as a high-performance model. The 200 h.p. Wolseley Viper was replaced by a 300 h.p. Hispano-Suiza enclosed in a streamlined cowling and cooled by under-slung radiators. The rear fuselage decking was redesigned to fair in with the pilot's headrest and a smaller windscreen was fitted. Now named the D.W.l., the work on this Hisso-powered hybrid was carried out in a shed at Brooklands near the old Henderson School of Flying hangars.

Dudley Watt raced it as a standard S.E.5a at Bournemouth in April 1927. In its revamped form it should have been a race-winner but records do not show it to have been a flag-dropper. The D.W.1 was finally burned at Whitchurch in 1932.