Sopwith Dolphin

The Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin of World War 1

The Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin was a British fighter aircraft manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It was used by the Royal Flying Corps and its successor, the Royal Air Force, during the First World War. 

The Dolphin entered service on the Western Front in early 1918 and proved to be a formidable fighter. The aircraft was not retained in the postwar inventory and was retired shortly after the war.

In early 1917, the Sopwith chief engineer, Herbert Smith, began designing a new fighter (internal Sopwith designation 5F.1) powered by the geared 200 hp Hispano-Suiza 8B. 

The resulting Dolphin was a two-bay, single-seat biplane, 

with the upper wings attached to an open steel cabane frame above the cockpit. 

To maintain the correct centre of gravity, the lower wings were positioned 13 in (33 cm) forward of the upper wings, creating the Dolphin’s distinctive negative wing stagger. 

The pilot sat with his head through the frame, where he had an excellent view. 

This configuration sometimes caused difficulty for novices, who found it difficult to keep the aircraft pointed at the horizon because the nose was not visible from the cockpit. 

The cockpit was nevertheless warm and comfortable, in part because water pipes ran alongside the cockpit walls to the two side-mounted radiator blocks. 

A pair of single-panel shutters, one in front of each radiator core and operated by the pilot, allowed the engine temperature to be controlled.

 

Windsock Datafile No. 054 - Sopwith Dolphin

Sopwith Snipe

The Sopwith Snipe

The Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe was a British single-seat biplane fighter of the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was designed and built by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War, and came into squadron service a few weeks before the end of the conflict, in late 1918.

The Snipe was not a fast aircraft by the standards of its time, but its excellent climb and manoeuvrability made it a good match for contemporary German fighters.

It was selected as the standard postwar single-seat RAF fighter and the last examples were not retired until 1926.

In April 1917, Herbert Smith, the chief designer of the Sopwith Company, began to design a fighter intended to be the replacement for Sopwith’s most famous aeroplane, the successful Sopwith Camel. 

The resultant design, called Snipe by Sopwith, was in its initial form a single-bay biplane, slightly smaller than the Camel, and intended to be powered by similar engines. 

The pilot sat higher than in the Camel while the centre-section of the upper wing was uncovered, giving a better view from the cockpit. 

Armament was to be two Vickers machine guns.

In the absence of an official order, Sopwith began construction of two prototypes as a private venture in September 1917. 

This took advantage of a licence that had been granted to allow construction of four Sopwith Rhino bomber prototypes, only two of which were built. 

The first prototype Snipe, powered by a Bentley AR.1 rotary engine was completed in October 1917.

The second prototype was completed with the new, more powerful Bentley BR.2, engine, which gave 230 horsepower (170 kW) in November 1917. This promised better performance, and prompted an official contract for six prototypes to be placed, including the two aircraft built as private ventures

Wings of Glory Sopwith Snipe (Barker) by Ares Games

Sopwith Pup

Sopwith Pup of World War 1

The Sopwith Pup was a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company.

It entered service with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in the autumn of 1916.

With pleasant flying characteristics and good maneuverability, the aircraft proved very successful.

The Pup was eventually outclassed by newer German fighters, but it was not completely replaced on the Western Front until the end of 1917.

The remaining Pups were relegated to Home Defence and training units.

The Pup’s docile flying characteristics also made it ideal for use in aircraft carrier deck landing and takeoff experiments. In 1915, Sopwith produced a personal aircraft for the company’s test pilot Harry Hawker, a single-seat, tractor biplane powered by a seven-cylinder 50 hp Gnome rotary engine.

This became known as Hawker’s Runabout; another four similar aircraft have been tentatively identified as Sopwith Sparrows.

Sopwith next developed a larger fighter that was heavily influenced by this design, though more powerful and controlled laterally with ailerons rather than by wing warping.

The resulting aircraft was a single-bay, single-seat biplane with a fabric-covered wooden framework and staggered equal-span wings.

The cross-axle type main landing gear was supported by V-struts attached to the lower fuselage longerons. The prototype and most production Pups were powered by the 80 hp (60 kW) Le Rhône 9C rotary engine. 

The armament was a single 0.303 inch (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun synchronized with the Sopwith-Kauper synchronizer.

A prototype was completed in February 1916 and sent to Upavon for testing in late March.

The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) quickly ordered two more prototypes, then placed a production order. Sopwith was heavily engaged in the production of the 1½ Strutter and produced only a small number of Pups for the RNAs. Deliveries commenced in August 1916.

The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) also placed large orders for Pups. The RFC orders were undertaken by sub-contractors Standard Motor Co. and Whitehead Aircraft. Deliveries did not commence until the beginning of 1917.

A total of 1,770 Pups were built by Sopwith (96), Standard Motor Co. In May 1916, the RNAS received its first Pups for operational trials with “A” Naval Squadron. 

The first Pups reached the Western Front in October 1916 with No. 8 Squadron RNAS, and proved successful, with the squadron’s Pups claiming 20 enemy machines destroyed in operations over the Somme battlefield by the end of the year.

The first RFC Squadron to re-equip with the Pup was No. 54 Squadron, which arrived in France in December.

The Pup quickly proved its superiority over the early Fokker,

Halberstadt and Albatros biplanes.

After encountering the Pup in combat, Manfred von Richthofen said, “We saw at once that the enemy airplane was superior to ours.”

The Pup’s lightweight and generous wing area gave it a good rate of climb.

Agility was enhanced by installing ailerons on both wings.

The Pup had half the horsepower and armament of the German Albatros D.III, but was much more maneuverable, especially over 15,000 ft (4,500 m) due to its low wing loading.

Ace James McCudden stated that “When it came to maneuvering, the Sopwith [Pup] would turn twice to an Albatros’ once … it was a remarkably fine machine for general all-round flying.

It was so extremely light and well surfaced that after a little practice one could almost land it on a tennis court.” However, the Pup was also longitudinally unstable.

At the peak of its operational deployment, the Pup equipped only four RNAS squadrons (Nos. 3, 4, 8 and 9), and three RFC squadrons (Nos. 54, 46, and 66). By the spring of 1917, the Pup had been outclassed by the newest German fighters.

The RNAS replaced their Pups, first with Sopwith Triplanes, and then with Sopwith Camels.

The RFC soldiered on with Pups, in spite of increasing casualties, until it was possible to replace them with Camels in December 1917.

Home Defence duties Pup with 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape engine The raids on London by Gotha bombers in mid-1917 caused far more damage and casualties than the earlier airship raids.

The ineffective response by British interceptor units had serious political repercussions.

In response, No. 66 Squadron was withdrawn to Calais for a short period, and No. 46 was transferred for several weeks to Sutton’s Farm airfield near London.

Two new Pup squadrons were formed specifically for Home Defence duties, No.

112 in July, and No. 61 in August. The first Pups delivered to Home Defence units utilised the 80 hp Le Rhône, but subsequent Home Defence Pups standardised on the more powerful 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape, which provided the improved rate of climb.

These aircraft were distinguishable by the addition of vents in the cowling face.

Shipboard use Sqn Cdr E. H. Dunning attempting a landing on HMS Furious in a Sopwith Pup (August 1917) Sopwith Pups were also used in many pioneering carrier experiments.

On 2 August 1917, a Pup flown by Sqn Cdr Edwin Dunning became the first aircraft to land aboard a moving ship, HMS Furious. Dunning was killed on his third landing when the Pup fell over the side of the ship.

The Pup began operations on the carriers in early 1917; the first aircraft were fitted with skid undercarriages in place of the standard landing gear.

Landings utilised a system of deck wires to “trap” the aircraft. Later versions reverted to the normal undercarriage. Pups were used as ship-based fighters on three carriers: HMS Campania, Furious and Manxman.

A number of other Pups were deployed to cruisers and battleships where they were launched from platforms attached to gun turrets.

A Pup flew from a platform on the cruiser HMS Yarmouth shot down the German Zeppelin L 23 off the Danish coast on 21 August 1917.

The U.S. Navy also employed the Sopwith Pup with famed Australian/British test pilot Edgar Percival testing the use of carrier-borne fighters. In 1926, Percival was catapulted in a Pup of the battleship USS Idaho at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Sopwith Pup

Sopwith Cuckoo

The Sopwith Cuckoo of World War 1

In October 1916, Commodore Murray Sueter, the Air Department’s Superintendent of Aircraft Construction, solicited Sopwith for a single-seat aircraft capable of carrying a 1,000 lb torpedo and sufficient fuel to provide an endurance of four hours.

The resulting aircraft, designated T.1 by Sopwith, was a large, three-bay biplane. Because the T.1 was designed to operate from carrier decks, its wings were hinged to fold backward.

The T.1 could take off from a carrier deck in four seconds, but it was not capable of making a carrier landing and no arresting gear was fitted.

A split-axle undercarriage allowed the aircraft to carry a 1,000 lb Mk. IX torpedo beneath the fuselage.

The prototype T.1 first flew in June 1917, powered by a 200 hp Hispano-Suiza 8Ba engine.

Official trials commenced in July 1917 and the Admiralty issued production orders for 100 aircraft in August.

Contractors Fairfield Engineering and Pegler & Company had no experience as aircraft manufacturers, however, resulting in substantial production delays.

Moreover, the S.E.5a had priority for the limited supplies of the Hispano-Suiza 8. Redesign of the T.1 airframe to accommodate the heavier Sunbeam Arab incurred further delays.

In February 1918, the Admiralty issued a production order to Blackburn Aircraft, an experienced aircraft manufacturer.

Blackburn delivered its first T.1 in May 1918.

The aircraft immediately experienced undercarriage and tail skid failures, requiring redesign of those components.

The T.1 also required an enlarged rudder and offset vertical stabilizer to combat its tendency to swing to the right.

Fairfield and Pegler finally began production in August and October, respectively.

A total of 300 T.1s were ordered, but only 90 aircraft had been delivered by the Armistice.

A total of 232 aircraft had been completed by the time production ended in 1919.

Blackburn Aircraft produced 162 aircraft, while Fairfield Engineering completed 50 and Pegler & Company completed another 20.

After the Armistice, many T.1s were delivered directly to storage depots at Renfrew and Newcastle.

After undergoing service trials at RAF East Fortune, the T.1 was recommended for squadron service.

Deliveries to the Torpedo Aeroplane School at East Fortune commenced in early August 1918.

Training took place in the Firth of Forth, where Cuckoos launched practice torpedoes at targets towed by destroyers. Cuckoos of No. 185 Squadron embarked on HMS Argus in November 1918, but hostilities ended before the aircraft could conduct any combat operations.

In service, the aircraft was generally popular with pilots because the airframe was strong and water landings were safe.

The T.1 was easy to control and was fully aerobatic without a torpedo payload.

The Arab engine proved unsatisfactory, however, and approximately 20 T.1s were converted to use Wolseley Viper engines.

These aircraft, later designated Cuckoo Mk. IIs, could be distinguished by the Viper’s lower thrust line. The Arab-engined variant was designated Cuckoo Mk. I.

The Cuckoo’s operational career ended when the last unit to use the type, No. 210 Squadron, disbanded at Gosport on 1 April 1923.

The Cuckoo was replaced in service by the Blackburn Dart.

Planned use
Throughout 1917, Commodore Sueter proposed plans for an aerial torpedo attack on the German High Seas Fleet at its base in Germany.

The carriers HMS Argus, HMS Furious, and HMS Campania, and the converted cruisers HMS Courageous and HMS Glorious, were to have launched 100 Cuckoos from the North Sea.

In September 1917, Admiral Sir David Beatty, commander of the Grand Fleet, proposed a similar plan involving 120 Cuckoos launched from eight converted merchant vessels.

Datafile 90: Sopwith Cuckoo

Sopwith Camel

The Sopwith Camel of World War 1

Sopwith Camel was introduced in 1917 and made by Sopwith Aviation Company.

The company was founded in Kingston upon Thames in the United Kingdom by Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith.

The Warplane was a single-seater biplane fighter, the Plane was regarded as a difficult plane to handle.

The Sopwith Camel had shot down over almost 1300 enemy Aircraft during the First World War more than any other allied fighter plane during the First World War.

The Sopwith Camel was used more as a ground attack aircraft during the later stages of the War as it became outclassed with newer technology in Air to Air Battle

The Sopwith Camel was armed with twin synchronised Machine guns and a powerful Rotary engine.

The Sopwith Camel soon became unpopular with Student pilots being a difficult Aircraft to handle.

By the mid-1918 the Aircraft was more restricted as a day fighter due to the slow speed of the plane and poor performances at high altitudes.

The Sopwith Camel played a key role in the ground-attack and infantry support aircraft during the German offensive of March 1918.

Camel File