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 perform-ance model. The 200 h.p. Wolseley Viper was replaced by a 300 h.p. Hispano Suiza enclosed in a stream-lined 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 re vamped 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.
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