Sopwith Camel

Sopwith Camel
Modern replica of a Sopwith Camel
Description
Role	fighter
Crew	1
First Flight
Entered Service	July 1917
Manufacturer	Sopwith Aviation Company
Dimensions
Length	18 ft 9 in	5.7 m
Wingspan	28 ft	8.5 m
Height	8 ft 6 in	2.5 m
Wing area	ft²	m²
Weights
Empty	950 lb	430 kg
Loaded	1482 lb	672 kg
Maximum takeoff	lb	kg
Capacity
Powerplant
Engine	Gnome 9 cylinder rotary engine
Power	150 hp	110 kW
Thrust	N/A	N/A
Performance
Maximum speed	115 mph	180 km/h
Stall Speed	50 knots	92.6 km/h
range	miles	km
Ferry range	300 miles	483 km
Service ceiling	21,000 ft	6,400 m
Rate of climb	ft/min	m/min
Wing loading	lb/ft²	kg/m²
Thrust/Weight
Power/Mass	hp/lb	kW/kg
Avionics
Avionics
Armament
Guns	two Vickers 0.303-in (7.7-mm) machine guns
Bombs	[none]
Missiles	[none]
Rockets	[none]
Other	[none]

The Sopwith Camel was a British World War I single-seat fighter aircraft. The Sopwith Camel was first built in 1916 by the Sopwith Aviation Company. Approximately 6,000 Camels were produced. It featured a 150-hp (110-kW) Gnome nine-cylinder rotary engine, and it was armed with two Vickers 0.303-in (7.7-mm) machine guns mounted in front of the cockpit, firing forward through the propeller disc. It was capable of reaching a speed of 115 mph (185 km/h). There was a fairing surrounding the gun installation which created a hump. It was this hump that led to the aircraft acquiring the name Camel.

The strong gyroscopic effect of the rotary engine resulted in strange handling, and the Camel was notoriously difficult to fly in the hands of a novice (many were crashed due to mishandling on landing approach). The plane was intentionally built unstable so that to keep it flying straight the pilot had to compensate all the time. This made the plane more difficult to fly, but it also made it more agile. This agility in combat made the Sopwith Camel one of the best remembered Allied aircraft of World War I.

Overall, it shot down 1294 enemy aircraft.

The Sopwith Camel was frequently referenced as the "plane" of Snoopy in the Peanuts comic strip, when he imagined himself as a WWI flying ace and the nemesis of the Red Baron.

List of Aircraft | Aircraft Manufacturers | Aircraft Engines | Aircraft Engine Manufacturers Airlines | Air Forces | Aircraft Weapons | Missiles | Years in Aviation

---

Sopwith Camel is also the name of a 1960s psychedelic rock music band from San Francisco, California.