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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0166.PDF
m CHT „—,— FEBRUARY 6, 1919 The Sopwith Baby seaplane The Sopwith Bat Boat. (1914) Although not included in the drawings, the Sopwith Bat Boat merits brief mention here on account of the good work done by this type of machine before the War. Thus it may be remembered that the Sopwith Bat Boat, which was first exhibited at the Olympia Aero Show of 1913 and which had a 100 h.p. Green engine, won the Mortimer Singer Trophy by starting off the sea, coming down on land, and starting from the land alighting on the sea again. This was accomplished by fitting it, in addition to the boat, with a collapsible wheel undercarriage. We are not quite certain but what this was the first flying boat to be built in Great Britain. A later type of bat boat is shown in another photograph. This was fitted with a 200 h.p. Salmson engine and differed from the previous type in various details. Thus, for instance, it had a straight top plane, while the bottom plane had a pro nounced dihedral. Also it had a single rudder instead of the twin rudders of the previous model. Also the tail booms were so arranged as to form a Vee when seen in plan view. Boats of this type were ordered by Germany before the War, and from photographs later published in German aviation papers it would appear that the Germans made several copies of this machine, imitating the original down to the smallest details. The Baby Seaplane. (September, 1915)* The Baby Seaplane was an immediate development of the " Tabloid," from which it differed principally in the fitting of floats instead of wheels. One of these machines made history by winning the Schneider Trophy at Monaco, and the Baby Seaplane is very similar to the famous Sopwith " Schneider " In this machine wing warping had given way to ailerons. The floats were of the plain, non-stepped type, and a tail float of considerable size was fitted under the stern. The engine originally fitted was a 100 h.p. Gnome monosoupape, but later on no and 130 h.p. Clergets were also used. It is of interest to note that, although this seaplane per formed highly successfully at its first appearance, it was more or less put on one side at the outbreak of War, and it was not until November, 1914, that the demand arose for a fast single-seater seaplane. It was then immediately put into production, and from that distant date until the signing of * The date against each machine is that on which the machine wa* passed by the Sopwith Experimental Department. The Sopwith V-strutter fighter (two-seater) 166
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