Sopwith Camel

A Short History Of The Sopwith Camel This Airplane Was Built In Great Britain. It Was First Built In 1916 By The Sopwith Aviation Company. It Was Built To Be a Fighter Plane In World War One.

A Brief Story About Tommy Sopwith:

Tommy Sopwith was a self-taught pilot and a very accomplished yachtsman. He firstly designed the Pup, the 1½ Strutter and then the Camel - which he called a pilot's aeroplane (meaning that if you mastered it you could become an 'Ace'). The Pup was later used for the first successful 'carrier' landing, but when the pilot tried to repeat the feat he unfortunately lost his life as the people who 'caught' the aircraft could not prevent it slipping over the side and the pilot was drowned - aircraft did not have brakes in those days.

After WW1 lots of aircraft were scrapped and there was a general decline in the aircraft industry and Sopwith's were 'absorbed' into the Hawker Aircraft Co. Harry Hawker went on to design the Hurricane (which was essentially the Gloster Gladiator biplane with only one wing!). The Hurricane, though lacking the charisma of the Spitfire, was responsible for 'downing' 4/5ths of enemy aircraft in the Battle of Britain.

In later years Hawker produced jet aircraft such as the Hunter and the Harrier. Eventually Hawker, like everyone else, was 'absorbed' to form British Aerospace. So almost every aviation project that the UK gets into is traceable back to dear old Tommy Sopwith - not that he was responsible for all this, but there IS an audit trail right back to him.

In closing I would like to leave you with this.

Tommy was interviewed in his eighties and was asked "Of all the aircraft that Sopwiths and Hawker have turned out, which is your favourite?" he thought about it for some time then replied "It's like asking the father of a very large family to name his favourite daughter?". "I think the Harrier" he said. "I was taken down to see it fly. I watched it take off; climb; fly very fast; stop; fly backwards AND sideways under complete control. Well, I thought I'd seen everything". And he was probably right. Tommy wound up the Sopwith Aviation Company in 1920 and later re-opened as the Hawker Company (after his chief test pilot Harry Hawker). Not 'absorbed' as I earlier thought. He also jointly developed the Hurricane. What a guy. Out of interest, despite the Camel being a real brute to fly it had the distinction of being WW1's most destructive fighter, accounting for 2,790 'kills'. This was more than any other single fighter type of any nation.

I would like to thank Barry Thomas as he sent me this information. Would also like to thank him for giving his permission to share this story with everyone.

Thanks, Ken Clary

SPECIFICATIONS

WING------------ 28 FT.

LENGTH-------- 18 FT 6 INCHES

HEIGHT--------- 8 FT. 6 INCHES

EMPTY WEIGHT----- 889 LBS

GROSS WEIGHT----- 1422 LBS

MAX. SPEED---------- 118 M.P.H.

CEILING-------------- 19,000 FT.

ENDURANCE-------- 2 1/2 HRS.

CREW---------- 1

ENGINE------ RECIPROCATING LE RHONE ROTARY X1, 110 H.P.

CLERGET 9B, 9 CYLINDER, AIR COOLED ROTARY, 130 H.P

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