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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0019.PDF
FLIGHT, 1 January 1954 9 THE SOPWITH PUP . . . wire. The ribs were of spruce, and birch riblets were added between the ribs to preserve the nose contours of the wing section. The wing tips were of |in x 20-gauge mild steel tube, and the trailing edges were of formed 22-gauge tube. The sur prisingly small ailerons were hinged to the rear spars. Pro duction Pups had two different forms of centre section, those R.N.A.S. machines with the aperture for an upward-firing gun having revised cross-bracing. Many Pups had part of the centre section covered with transparent material to improve upward view. Interplane and centre section struts were of spruce. The tailplane had a wooden main spar, leading edge, ribs and riblets: the rear spar was of Jin x 22-gauge mild steel tube, as was the leading edge of the elevators. The elevator assembly was made of steel tube throughout, all joints being brazed. The tailplane tips were also formed of steel tube, and three wooden compression struts were fitted between the spars, cross-bracing being of 16-gauge wire. The entire fin and rudder assembly was made of steel tube. The undercarriage was structurally similar to that used on the l^-strutter, and was of the form which came to be recognized as typically "Sopwith." It consisted of two plain vees of stream-i line-section steel tube, the apices of which were connected by two spreader bars of steel tube. Each wheel was mounted on a half-axle which was pivoted, by its inboard end at the mid point of the spreader bars and bound by rubber cord to the apex of the appropriate vee strut. The whole structure was cross-braced, and a single vertical wire braced the mid-point of the axle assembly to the bottom of the fuselage. The wheels had 700 x 75 mm Palmer tyres. The complete machine had the fine lines of a thoroughbred, and was certainly one of the prettiest aeroplanes ever built. In the air it was easily recognizable by the cut-black plan-form of wing tips and tailplane. The Pup was essentially a pilot's aero plane. The controls were light and sensitive, the elevators being particularly powerful. The aircraft retained its wonderful con trollability even at 15,000ft, and in any battle of turns at that altitude it could easily outmanoeuvre any contemporary German fighter without losing height. The first Pup to see service in France arrived there at the end of May 1916, and was sent to Naval "A" Fighting Squadron at Furnes, probably for service trials. Some two weeks later the first Sopwith Triplane was also sent to Naval "A," and the two aeroplanes created a sensation with their speed, tractability and rate of climb. Sopwiths were at that time contractors to the Admiralty, and the earliest production Pups were built for the R.N.A.S. Nearly all of the R.F.C. Pups seem to have been built by the Standard Motor Co. and by Whitehead Aircraft Ltd. The first production batch did not begin to appear until the third quarter of 1916: by the end of that September ten machines had been delivered. No. 1 Wing of the R.N.A.S. seems to have been the first Ser vice unit to use the Pup in quantity, for it is recorded that the Wing provided six Pups to equip one flight of No. 8 (Naval) Squadron late in October, 1916. The other two flights of the squadron were equipped with Nieuport Scouts and Sopwith li-strutters, and the squadron made its first patrol on November 3rd. The Pups quickly demonstrated their superiority over the opposing fighters, and Naval Eight soon wanted more of the type instead of its H-strutters and Nieuports. It was agreed between General Trenchard and Wing Captain C. L. Lambe (then responsible for the Dover-Dunkirk group of R.N.A.S. air bases) that the lj-strutters should be replaced by Pups, and this was done on November 16th, 1916. The Nieuports were also replaced gradually, and by the end of the year the squadron was completely equipped with Pups. To achieve this, Wing Captain Lambe had had to undertake to provide the necessary 80 h.p. Le Rhone engines. These he obtained by salvage from crashed Nieuports, and a few he wheedled out of the French Naval air service. The overhaul of these engines was carried out at the Dunkirk station, after which they were shipped to Dover for installation in Pup airframes. Naval Eight's record over the Somme was impressive. Between October 26th and the end of December 1916, twenty of the twenty-four enemy machines destroyed by the squadron fell to the Pups. By March 28th, 1917, the squadron was re-equipped with Sopwith Triplanes, but the Pup gave sterling service during the Battles of Arras in the hands of No. 3 (Naval) Squadron and of R.F.C. Squadrons Nos. 54 and 66. No. 54 was the first R.F.C. unit to take the Pup to France, and it arrived there on Christmas Eve, 1916. No. 66 Squadron followed on March 6th, 1917. The only other R.F.C. squadron to use the Pup on the Western Front was No. 46 Squadron, which relinquished its Nieuport two-seaters on re-equipment in April 1917. The Pup convincingly proved its excellence over the Arras battlefields on many occasions. On April 6th, 1917, five of No. 3 C Naval Squadron's Pups, led by F/Cdr. T. C. Vernon, were escorting a bombing formation of B.E.s and attacked four Halberstadts which were getting into position to attack the bombers. Vernon shot the wings off one Halberstadt, Sub-Lt. J. S. T. Fall shot another down in flames, and the remaining two broke up in the air under the combined fire of the B.E.s and the other Pups. Sub-Lt. Fall distinguished himself in a combat over Cambrai five days later when, as one of the escort to five B.E.s of No. 4 Squadron, R.F.C., he shot down two Albatros scouts and a Halberstadt. These victories contributed to Three Naval's impressive score of eighty enemy aircraft shot down between the beginning of February and the middle of June 1917: the squadron's losses during that period were only nine. The Pup continued to give good service with the R.F.C. and R.N.A.S. throughout the Battle of Ypres and Cambrai, but it began to be outclassed by the autumn of 1917. Its single Vickers gun denied it a satisfactory volume of fire, and towards the end of its active service with No. 54 Squadron a few pilots of that unit added a Lewis gun above the upper wing. The idea was soon abandoned, however, for it was found that the additional gun and mounting weakened the centre section and made the Pup heavy on the controls. The Pup squadrons also dropped bombs on occasion, up to four 251b bombs being carried. No. 66 Squadron carried out several bombing attacks during the Battle of Ypres. To the end of its service on the Western Front the Pup remained useful because of its height-holding capabilities. In mis respect it was superior to the later and more powerful D.H.5, and when mixed formations went out on offensive sweeps the aircraft were usually disposed with the Pups at about 15,000ft, Bristol Fighters at 12,000ft, and D.H.5s at 9,000ft. For Home Defence duties, the first organized use of Pups
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