First up the Sopwith Pup. The Puyp was developed from Sopwith's chief test pilot's, Harry Hawker, personal aircraft. First flight was in early 1916 and the Pup proved to be an agile fighter that was superior to the current crop of German Fokker, Halberstadt and Albatros fighters. The light weight and generous wing area gave the Pup an outstanding rate of climb., Ailerons were fitted on both wings which gave the Pup great agility. The Pup was able to outturn the Albatross D. III at a rate of two to one. But witht eh good news comes the bad and the Pup was longitudinally unstable. One pilot remarked "It was so light to the touch, if you sneezed, you looped."
Another drawback was that the Pup was fitted with only one machine gun versus two on most of the German aircraft. The Upu served with several Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Flying Corps Squadrons until replaced by the Sopwith Triplane and the Camel in 1917.
First up a static picture of a Sopwith Pup.
A fine picture of a Pup in flight by Glenn Alderton fills the #2 spot tonight.
The Triplane was development of the Pup. The fuselahge and empennage of the Pup were used but designer Herbert Smith used three narrow chord wings to give the piulot a better field of view. Ailerons were fitted to all three wings which gave the Tripe outstanding agility. The appearance of the Sopwith Triplane sparked a flurry of triplane designs from German designers.
An interesting aside is that the Sopwith Triplane was used only by the Royal Naval Air Service with the exception of one squadron of the French Naval Air Service. Thr Tripes comabt carrer was short lived only about 9 months. While a robust and agile fighter the Tripe had the same drawback as the Pup, only one Vickers machine gun was fitted. The other drawback was that the Triplane was a difficult aircraft to repair. Even relatively minor repairs required the Tripe to be sent back to a rear area repair depot. Wiitht he appearance of the Sopwith Camel in late 1917 the Tripe was relegated to advance pilot training duties.
Next we have reproduction Triplane. The aircraft is painted to represent Dixie II, serial N6290, of No. 8 Naval Squadron and is from the Shuttleworth Collection.
A nice side view of "DixieII"
With all this talk of Sopwiths and Fokkers how about a couple of Snoopy and Red Barron pics, well sort of:-)
Curses foiled again says Snoopy...
Well that all for tonight. We are expecting a major winter storm here in Kansas City with 5 to 10 inches of snow expected by this time tomorrow night. Ain't Global Warming wonderful, yee haw. Y'all take care now and hopefully we will be back tomorrow night.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Lamh Foistenach Abu!