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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0560.PDF
560 Standard Beard more-built 2F.I Camel, showing arrangement of the armament and the external control levers for the elevator cables. SOPWITH CAMEL PART 2 HISTORIC MILITARY AIRCRAFT No. 10 By J. M. BRUCE, M.A. THERE are indications that a few F.I Camels may havebeen used from ships and even from the towed lightersmentioned later. Be that as it may, another version of the Camel was designed specifically for use from ships, and differed sufficiently from the standard machine to be given a new Sopwith type number: it was the Sopwith 2F.1. The prototype 2F.1, numbered N.5, was tested as early as March 1917. It was powered by the 130 h.p. Clerget, as were the first production 2F.ls. The Sopwith 2F.1 was distinguished from the F.I by a fuselage which was made in two parts: the division occurred one bay behind the cockpit, and at that point the rear portion of the fuselage could be completely detached. The object of the divisible fuselage was, of course, to economize in space on board ship. The necessary modifications to the controls resulted in the appearance of external rocking levers for the elevator controls, immediately behind the division in the fuselage. The centre section of the 2F.1 was of shorter span than that ofthe F.I, and reduced the overall span of the aircraft by about a foot. The lower mainplanes were correspondingly shorter. Thecentre section was supported on steel-tube struts which, in front elevation, were splayed less sharply than the spruce struts of theF.I Camel; they were noticeably more slender than those of the F.I and provided a useful distinguishing feature.One of the more important duties of shipboard fighters of the period was to attack enemy airships, not only those which raidedthe United Kingdom but those which performed the tactically more important tasks of scouting for and protecting German navalunits. For these attacks the R.N.A.S. favoured upward-firing guns, and the armament of the Sopwith 2F.1 was arranged Experimental Camel 2F.1 at felixstowe, with twin-Vickers-gun instal- lation and steel-tube undercarriage. accordingly. A single fixed Vickers gun was mounted on top ofthe fuselage, to port of centre; and a Lewis gun was carried above the centre section on a mounting which enabled the weapon to beswung back for reloading and for upward firing. The structure of the centre section differed from that of the F.I Camel to permitthe gun to pass through the central cut-out. The Sopwith 2F.1 Camel was flown from ships in the same wayas the Pup, which it largely supplanted. A short runway, little more than twice the Camel's own length, was built on the fore-castle of some of the light cruisers, but many had a platform built on top of a gun-turret. A rather longer run was providedon battle cruisers by similar platforms on gun-turrets. In all cases the tail-guide trestle first used for the Sopwith Pup was fitted.The 2F.1 was also flown from the aircraft carriers Furious, Pegasus and, later, Argus and Eagle. On June 1st, 1918, during one of the sweeps made by theHarwich Force, the Camels of the Australian light cruisers Sydney and Melbourne took off to attack enemy seaplanes: Lt. A. C.Sharwood of the Sydney forced one down on the sea, but machine- gun trouble made it impossible for him to follow up his attack.Two Camels from Furious attacked two German seaplanes in the Heligoland Bight during a reconnaissance operation by the FirstLight Cruiser Squadron on June 17th. Lt. G. Heath forced one of the enemy down on the sea; the seaplane was later sunk by thedestroyer Valentine. One of the most daring uses of Sopwith 2F.1 Camels was theiroperation from lighters towed by destroyers. These lighters had been developed for the transportation of flying-boats across theNorth Sea in order to increase their radius of action. By using them to carry single-seat fighters the Admiralty was provided witha means of making daylight attacks on Zeppelins over the North Sea and on enemy seaplane bases. The first attempt to fly a Camel from a lighter was made byCol. C. R. Samson on May 30th, 1918, and it nearly cost that gallant officer his life. There was no proper flying-off deck, thetake-off device consisting of a pair of troughs running the full length of the lighter. The Camel which Samson used had beenspecially fitted with twin skids instead of wheels, in the same way as the Sopwith 9901a version of the Pup, and these skids ran inthe troughs. Samson resorted to this arrangement partly to enable the experiments to be conducted as quickly as possible, and partlyto ensure that his Camel would keep straight and not fall over the side of the lighter before it was properly airborne. The trial wascarried out off Orfordness; and on board the towing destroyer Truculent was Lt-Col. E. D. M. Robertson, the officer command-ing Felixstowe air station. With the lighter under tow at 32 knots, Samson started to takeoff, but the Camel's skids jumped from the tracks in the lighter's
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