Sopwith Camel

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This article describes the fighter plane. For the 1960s psychedelic rock music band, see Sopwith Camel (band).

Sopwith Camel

A Sopwith Camel at the Imperial War Museum, London
Type	Biplane fighter
Manufacturer	Sopwith Aviation Company
Maiden flight	December 1916
Introduced	June 1917
Primary users	RFC (RAF) RNAS, AAF

The Sopwith Camel Scout was a British World War I single-seat fighter aircraft that was famous for its maneuverability.

1 History
2 Variants
3 Operators
4 Specifications (F.1 Camel)
5 References
6 Trivia
7 External links
8 Related content

[edit] History

Image:Sopwith.Camel in flying.jpg

Intended as a replacement for the Sopwith Pup, the Sopwith Camel prototype first flew in December 1916. It was known as the "Big Pup" early on in its development. It was armed with two .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine guns mounted in front of the cockpit, firing forward through the propeller disc. A fairing surrounding the gun installation created a hump that led to the aircraft acquiring the name Camel. The Camel entered squadron service in June 1917. Approximately 5,500 Camels were produced.

Unlike the preceding Pup and Triplane, the Camel was not considered pleasant to fly. With the majority of weight packed into first seven feet of the aircraft coupled with the strong gyroscopic effect of the rotary engine the Camel exhibited several idiosyncrasies and soon gained a dangerous reputation with student pilots. The Clerget engine was particularly sensitive to fuel mixture control, and incorrect settings often caused the engine to choke and cut-out during take-off. Many crashed due to mishandling on takeoff when a full fuel tank affected the center of gravity. In level flight, the Camel was markedly tail-heavy. It turned sharply to the right with a nose-down attitude, while it turned slowly to the left with a nose-up attitude. Turns in either direction required left rudder. A stall immediately resulted in a spin and the Camel was particularly noted for its vicious spinning characteristics. Controls were light and sensitive.

Nevertheless, its agility in combat made the Sopwith Camel one of the best remembered Allied aircraft of World War I. To its pilots, it was referred to as providing a choice among a "wooden cross, red cross and Victoria Cross." Together with the S.E.5a, the Camel helped to wrest aerial superiority away from the German Albatros scouts. The Camel was credited with shooting down 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied scout.

Major William Barker's Sopwith Camel (serial no. B6313) became the most successful fighter aircraft in the history of the RAF, shooting down 46 aircraft & balloons from September 1917 to September 1918 in 404 operational hours flying. It was dismantled in October 1918. Barker kept the clock as a memento, although he was asked to return it the following day.

By mid-1918, the Camel was approaching obsolesence as a fighter, limited by its slow speed and comparatively poor performance over 12,000 feet. It found a new lease of life as a ground-attack aircraft and infantry support weapon, especially after the German Offensive of March 1918 when flights of Camels harassed the advancing German Army, inflicting high losses (and suffering high losses in turn) through the dropping of 25lb Cooper bombs and ultra low-level strafing. The protracted development of the Camel's replacement, the Sopwith Snipe, meant that the Camel remained in service until the Armistice.

[edit] Variants

The Camel was powered by a variety of rotary engines during the production period.

130 hp Clerget 9B Rotary
140 hp Clerget 9Bf Rotary
110 hp Le Rhone 9J Rotary
150 hp Bentley BR1 Rotary
100 hp Gnome Monosoupape 9B-2 Rotary
150 hp Gnome Monosoupape 9N Rotary

The Gnome engines differed from the others in that a selector switch could cut the ignition to all but one of the cylinders to reduce power for landing. (This was because rotary engines did not have throttles and were at full 'throttle' all the while the ignition was on) On the others the engine had to be "blipped" using a control column-mounted ignition switch (blip switch) to reduce power sufficiently for a safe landing.

[edit] Sopwith Camel F.1

Single-seat fighter scout aircraft.
The main production version.

[edit] Sopwith Camel 2F.1

Shipboard fighter scout aircraft.

[edit] Sopwith Camel 'Comic' Nightfighter

Pilot seat moved to rear. The twin Vickers guns were replaced with two Lewis guns fitted to the top wing. Served with Home Defence Squadrons against Zeppelin raids.

[edit] F.1/1

Version with tapered wings.

[edit] (Trench Fighter) T.F.1

Experimental trench fighter.
Downward angled machine guns
Armour plating for protection

[edit] Operators

[edit] Specifications (F.1 Camel)

Image:Sopwith Camel 3-view.png

Data from Quest for Performance<ref>Loftin, LK, Jr.. Quest for performance: The evolution of modern aircraft. NASA SP-468. Retrieved on 2006-04-22.</ref>

General characteristics<h3>
Crew: 1
Length: 18 ft 9 in (5.71 m)
Wingspan: 26 ft 11 in (8.53 m)
Height: 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Wing area: 231 ft² (21.46 m²)
Empty weight: 930 lb (420 kg)
Loaded weight: 1,455 lb (660 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Clerget 9B 9-cylinder Radial engine, 130 hp (97 kW)
Zero-lift drag coefficient: 0.0378

Drag area: 8.73 ft² (0.81 m²)
Aspect ratio: 4.11 <h3>Performance<h3>
Maximum speed: 115 mph (185 km/h)
Stall speed: 48 mph (77 km/h)
Range: 300 mi ferry (485 km)
Service ceiling: 21,000 ft (6,400 m)
Rate of climb: 1,085 ft/min (5.5 m/s)
Wing loading: 6.3 lb/ft² (30.8 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.09 hp/lb (150 W/kg)

Lift-to-drag ratio: 7.7 <h3>Armament<h3>
Guns: 2× 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine guns

[edit] References

[edit] Trivia

There are only seven authentic Sopwith Camels left in the world with one in the United States. It can be found at the Aerospace Education Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Another (a replica) can be found at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

Another, beautifully restored to near-flying condition is at the Brussels air-museum in Belgium.

[edit] The Camel in Popular Culture

The Camel appears in literature as:

The fighter flown by Biggles in the novels by W. E. Johns, during the character's spell in 266 squadron during World War I.
The "plane" of Snoopy in the Peanuts comic strip, when he imagines himself as a WWI flying ace and the nemesis of the Red Baron. The "plane" is actually his doghouse.
A 1960s American music group was called "The Sopwith Camel".
Featured in the novel The Razor's Edge, by British playwright and author W. Somerset Maugham
The type of plane flown in WWI by John and Bayard Sartoris in William Faulkner's Flags in the Dust. Under fire from a pupil of Richthofen (the Red Baron), John's Camel caught fire over occupied France. Bayard's last sight of his twin brother was of John jumping out of his plane feet first.
Private Baldrick in the British TV series Blackadder Goes Forth wished to become a pilot. In the episode "Private Plane," at one point he began making a shrill noise and flapping his hands. When asked what he was doing, he responded "I'm a Sopwith Camel, sir" to which Captain Blackadder replied "I always confuse the sound of a Sopwith Camel with that of a malodorous runt who is wasting everybody's time."

[edit] Videogames

The Camel also appears in the following videogames:

Sopwith and Sopwith2.
Blue Max
Flying Corps
FlightGear Free and Open Source flight sim
Red Baron
Microsoft Flight Simulator series (98 through 2002)
Red Ace Squadron Small Rockets 2001
Over Flanders Fields Freeware addon for Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron

[edit] Music

The Camel also is used often by the American rock band The Royal Guardsmen in several of their songs. In The Story of The Return of The Red Baron which preceeds the song The Return of The Red Baron on their Snoopy And His Friends album (and is something of a follow up to their song Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron, it is mentioned in a mock radio broadcast that the Red Baron "went down like a shot through the clouds, with a Camel on his tail giving it to him proper."

The Camel also is mentioned as the plane the unfortunate Allied pilot is flying in Down Behind th Lines. Here the Camel pilot is trying to return to his side of the line during a winter's eve. The tone of the song is less upbeat than their Snoopy songs as they paint the picture of a pilot struggling to keep from going down behind the lines. The last thing we really know of him is that his engine stalls just when he manages to spy the Allied lines and is forced to try and glide though we don't know if he makes it.

The Camel also lends its name to their Sopwith Camel Time and appears in the song Snoopy for President.