Sopwith Camel
The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the best-known fighter aircraft of the Great War. In total, Camel pilots were credited with downing 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than their counterparts flying any other Allied fighter of the conflict. Towards the end of the war, the type also saw use as a ground-attack aircraft, partly because the capabilities of fighter aircraft on both sides had advanced rapidly and left the Camel somewhat outclassed.
This article is about the fighter aircraft. For the 1960s psychedelic rock band, see Sopwith Camel (band).
The Camel was powered by a single rotary engine and was armed with twin synchronized Vickers machine guns. It was difficult to fly, with 90% of its weight in the front seven feet of the aircraft, but it was highly manoeuvrable in the hands of an experienced pilot, a vital attribute in the relatively low-speed, low-altitude dogfights of the era. Its pilots joked that their fates would involve "a wooden cross, the Red Cross, or a Victoria Cross".
The main variant of the Camel was designated as the F.1. Other variants included the 2F.1 Ship's Camel, which operated from aircraft carriers; the Comic night fighter variant; and the T.F.1, a "trench fighter" armoured for attacks on heavily defended ground targets. A two-seat variant served as a trainer. The last Camels were withdrawn from RAF service in January 1920.
Notable appearances in media[edit]
Biggles flies a Sopwith Camel in the novels by W. E. Johns during Biggles's spell in 266 Squadron during the First World War. The first collection of Biggles stories, titled The Camels are Coming, was published in 1932. The first two collections of stories (broken into three books in Australia) were all true stories or events, lightly fictionalised—some of them are identifiable in official war records, e.g., the accidental discovery of a major camouflaged airfield when rescuing a downed pilot.[84]
The Camel is the "plane" of Snoopy in the Peanuts comic strip, when he imagines himself as a World War I flying ace and the nemesis of the Red Baron.[85]
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
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