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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 2385.PDF
682 FLIGHT FIGHTING BREED a type which has often—and certainly not without justification—been described as the greatest fighter of the First World War. The prototype was passed out by the Sopwith experimentaldepartment on December 22nd and, due to the humped cowling over the breeches of its twin synchronized Vickers guns (but not,as some people believe, to the apparent anhedral of the upper wings, accentuated by the sharp dihedral of the lower wings)it was dubbed Camel. There was never a more aggressive looking single-seater—snub-nosed, compact in the extreme, and with the pilot seated far "forward, with his guns and Aldis sight immediately to hand andeye. And not only in appearance was the Camel possessed of character. This was no easy-going Pup to suffer even fools gladly;but with the right hands on the stick it was the deadliest fighting machine in existence. Even its tricks and vices could be trans-formed into virtues. Its elevator was hypersensitive and the torque of the Le Rhone, Clerget or Bentley rotary caused it toturn with greater alacrity to the right than to the left. But the proof of this fierce little pudding of a fighter was in the destructionof more enemy aircraft than by any other machine of the Kaiser's war. At least three Camel-pilots claimed six e/a. in a single day. The standard land-based Camel was the model F.I. For ship-board service a special version (2F. 1) was developed, with a rack-mounted Lewis gun (for underneath attacks on Zeppelins)in place of one of the Vickers, and, in late series, a Bentley engine and detachable rear fuselage were embodied. It was a naval-typeCamel, flown by Lti S. D. Culley and launched from a 30ft platform built on to a destroyer-towed lighter, which shot downZeppelin L.53 over the Heligoland Bight in August, 1918. Camel power plants included the no h.p. Le Rhone, 130 h.p.Clerget (this was normal) and 150 h.p. Bentley A.R.I. Little- known variants of the machine were the tandem-seat trainer,used at Cranwell; a tapered-wing development with single interplane struts a la Triplane; and an armoured "trench fighter"(or ground-attack aircraft, as it would be known today) with special protective plating and downward-firing guns. The Camelwas also adapted for air launching; it was, in fact, the second aircraft to be released from a dirigible, the first being a B.E.2C. Though, as we shall see, the Camel was by no means the lastof the handy fighting biplanes, there was never to be another type to rival its powers of lightning manoeuvre—at once the pride ofits pilots and the bane of the Fokkers and Albatrosses. Fighters were thereafter to become larger, stronger, heavier and moreelaborately equipped, and in the Camel's successor, the Snipe (7F.1) of 1917, we see an increase in span from 28ft to 31ft, andin weight from 1^450 lb to about 2,000 lb. The wing structure of the Snipe (except in an experimental single-bay model) was oftwo-bay type, of very great rigidity, and the fuselage, behind the large-diameter rotary engine, was of circular section. In the opinion of the Sopwith company the air-cooled rotaryhad now reached, if not exceeded, its optimum size, and they were somewhat disappointed by the Snipe's performance. A Clerget-powered Camel, showing the twin Vickers gun to advantage. Belb*: A production-type Dolphin, with 200 h.p. Hispono-Suiza. Nevertheless, there was general agreement that the Snipe was thefinest all-round fighter in service at the war's end, though fewer than a hundred reached the Front. It was in one of these, onOctober 27th, 1918, that Major W. G. Barker, having shot down a two-seater from 21,000ft, was set upon by a Fokker and woundedin the thigh. The Snipe went spinning down out of control, but Barker recovered—only to find himself beset by fifteen Fokkers.Of these he damaged two and, from a range of 10 yards, sent a third down in flames. He was now hit for a second time and againspun down—this time unconscious. He came to, to find himself hemmed in by a dozen of the enemy and promptly—from lessthan 5 yards—shot the tail off one. As he did so a bullet shattered his left elbow. For a second time he fainted and with returningconsciousness saw that he was still surrounded. The Snipe was by this time smoking heavily and, thinking it to be on fire, Barkerresolved to bring a Fokker to earth with its burning wreckage. He made for the nearest of the enemy but, changing his mind onthe point of collision, he pressed the twin firing levers on the spade-grip column. The Fokker fell away in flames . . . The Snipe finally crash-landed behind our lines and Barkerwas lifted out unconscious. He recovered from his wounds and. for his surpassing gallantry was awarded the Victoria Cross. So much for the fighting qualities of the Snipe and for thesort of men who flew it. The Snipe continued in service, at home and abroad, until theearly 1920s but several other fighters were to materialize in the years between. Chronologically the Snipe's successor was theDolphin 5 F.i, often remembered as the first Sopwith fighter with a liquid-cooled engine, though this is not strictly true, for twoTriplane prototypes had been experimentally fitted with Hispano- Suiza engines, one of 150, the second of 200 h.p. Nevertheless, theDolphin was notable in being specifically designed for the 200 h.p. geared "Hisso." Even more significant, it had four guns and—to afford the pilot an exceptional field of view, particularly for night fighting—its two-bay wings were staggered backwards. Thefirst Dolphin had a deep car-type radiator, whereas on production machines twin radiators flanked the cockpit. The pilot sat withhis head protruding through the top centre-section, but this proved to be a dangerous location in the event of a nose-over, andto minimize the risk protective "hoops" were fitted on the upper wings and an emergency exit was built in the fuselage side. Mounted on the upper front spar extensions were twin Lewis,guns, capable oft being manually elevated, and over the engine were the standard twin Vickers. The Abandoned Cuckoo Though Sopwith machines up to this time had all displayedsome family characteristic, they were by no means stereotyped, and the design which followed the Dolphin was indeed somethingdifferent, being a large three-bay, single-seater, torpedo-dropper. Latterly known as the Cuckoo (the Sopwith egg having beenhatched in the Blackburn nest), it had a chequered career, the story of which is outlined by Rear-Admiral Murray Sueter. TheAdmiral tells how he invited Mr. Sopwith to the Admiralty to discuss the building of a torpedo-carrying aircraft. "Sopwithwas a great constructor," he writes, "and never failed in anything I asked him to undertake. He thought my proposition was verystiff, as it meant building a light aeroplane round the Whdtehead torpedo, and he had better think it over." The Admiral confirmed his conversation in a Most Secretmemorandum dated October 9th, 1916, asking Mr. Sopwith to study the design of a torpedo-carrying aircraft with four hours'fuel and one or two 1,000 Ib torpedoes. Mr. Sopwith got to work, but when the prototype was nearlyready the Admiral was ordered abroad and interest in the project lapsed. One day W/C. Longmore—-the first Englishman to releasea torpedo from an aircraft—was visiting the Sopwith works and saw the Cinderella torpedo-carrier triced up to the beams of oneof the shops. His questions elicited its history and Longmore had the machine dusted down and prepared for tests. Eventually,impressive quantities were ordered from the Blackburn company —but too late for the Cuckoo to play any useful part in the war. It should not be thought, after this nautical deviation, that thelist of Sopwith fighters has been exhausted, for in April, 1918, there appeared the deadly Salamander (TF.2). The name was,indeed, apt, for this machine was a trench strafer, developed from the Snipe and carrying nearly 650 lb of armour plate. This hada structural as well as a protective function, in forming the front of the fuselage from a point immediately behind the engine andextending aft of the pilot's cockpit. The pilot's head was pro- tected and streamlined by a bullet-proof fairing—one of the fewrecognition features, incidentally, which distinguished the Salamander from the Snipe. Standard armament of the Sala-mander was two Vickers guns with the unprecedented ammunition supply of 1,000 rounds each. Experimental variants had four, six,and even, it is said, eight guns, the eight being arranged to fire downwards through the floor. Contemporary with the Salamander was the Buffalo—a two- 7
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