Sopwith Camel, War Winner or Death Trap?

The Sopwith Camel was one of the best Allied planes of the war, and it helped turn the tide of the air war in mid to late 1917. However while it was dangerous to the enemy, it was dangerous to its own pilots as well, especially inexperienced pilots.

Note, regarding the machine guns, what I should have said is that I have read that when synchronized to fire through the propeller the German Spandaus had a rate of fire about 50 percent higher than the Vickers when synchronized. I think they both fire around 450 when unsynchronized.

[grahamthomson]

The Camel first flew 102 years after the Battle of Waterloo. We are now 107 years from the Camels first flight.

[billwendell]

Imagine, no oxygen mask, flying top patrol at nearly 20, 000 feet. The good news is there was usually only fuel for and hour and a half. The rotarys had no throttle, just ignition cut, out for landing. Most WW1 pilots had a flask of brandy with them, helped with the cold, PTSD, added courage...., and of course tempered the laxitive they were inhaling from the rotary.

[paladin]

In case anyone is interested, the RAF in 'RAF wire' stands for Royal Aircraft Factory, not Royal Air Force.

[recoilrob]

The best factoid about the rotary engines was they were lubricated with Castor oil...which was thrown back at the pilot as it flew. They were able to determine if the engine was getting enough oil from the sheen on the wing and it was said that upon landing the Crew Chief would run out with a jigger of booze to give to the pilot. This was to cut the Castor oil from his throat and he'd then make a hasty retreat to the head as the oil has a real impact on your ability to not crap yourself. Flying back then wasn't the glamorous thing as portrayed today in the movies...it was cold, hard and uncomfortable business.

[tomhutchins]

Snoopy and Biggles: what more can you ask of a plane?

[Thermopylae]

The great stunt pilot Frank Tallman had a Camel in his collection that he restored and flew at many military shows and civilian events. He mentioned how cramped the cockpit was for his 6'1" frame and as far as the sensitivity of the controls he said "Don't think I ever got out of a Camel after being airborne without buckets of perspiration and considerable gratitude that I had gotten the little girl home without breaking her into splinters!" If a pilot of Tallman's caliber got that nervous flying one; imagine what it must have been like for many of the ham-handed RFC trainees trying to solo in a Camel.

[joellamoureux]

As an auto mechanic I find watching radial engine crankshafts in motion absolutely hypnotizing. I never have seen a video of this that was long enough for me. Something that interesting deserves at least a few minutes of viewing.

[valleywoodstudio]

Fascinating!
Just as an aside, my step-grandfather flew the Avro 504k as a reconnaissance pilot. He crashed after his 4-5th (not sure) mission over Belgium and we still have the joystick.
As the story goes, he got lost when coming back across the channel having fallen asleep momentarily during the crossing back due to exhaustion- followed the wrong railway line (the navigational aid they used) when he reached the coast, and headed north by accident. Ran out of fuel and crash landed in a field in Essex and was invalided out of the war. He was only 19! Lived to 1984.

[tomjoseph]

My great grandmother was born in the 1880's and lived well past man landing on the moon. As a child, I was fascinated to listen to her stories from horse and buggy days up through both world wars culminating with the space program.

[cphrpunk]

That 48 years between aircraft makes me think of my great grandpa, born 1903, died 1993. In his lifetime he went from seeing Wright Flyers to biplanes, a world war, radio invented, barnstorming, an Allis Challmer tractor, depression, another world war, a new Ford 8N, telephones, another war, television, another war, his first airplane flight in a DC-3, nukes, the adoption of jet aircraft, the Mercury & Gemini flights, sound barrier broken, another war, landing on the moon, color tv, his first international flight (to Japan to see me after birth), a new Ford 8N, Skylab, the 747, computers at home, 200 years!, Space Shuttle, MTV, another Ford 8N, sell the farm, old folks home, stealth, another war, we inherit the Ford 8N.

That really had to be a period of near wizardry, watching the Wright Flyer turn into a Space Shuttle and stealth. Yet that trusty 8N, one a Jubilee, was constant, some things don’t need improvement.

[ronaldbrouhard]

One of the other dangerous traits of Rotary - engined fighters: no throttle. Gads! Ya basically run 'em with a kill switch.

[caeserromero]

RFC pilots used to joke that it offered the choice between "a wooden cross, the Red Cross, or a Victoria Cross"

[edwardd]

On guns taken from The Red Barons crashed plane you can see the tubes fitted to draw engine hot air to the machine guns working parts.

[Thomas..Anderson]

A practical thing about Greg's videos is that I can comfortably press thumb up button before I watch the video to the end.

[tomhutchins]

Regarding modellers and flat RAF wire: a common method is to use a flat elastic thread. If you make sure it isn’t twisted it looks really nice. Having built a Bristol Fighter, Camel and a Felixstowe flying boat (derived from the big Curtiss designs) rigged this way I can confirm it’s also a massive pain!

[rperry]

I love the current focus on WW1 era planes.

[daviddemmer]

Not really on point, but I need to highly recommend a book called 'No Parachute' by Arthur Gould Lee. By his own admission a middling Pup pilot in 1917, the book is a mix of his diary and letters home. The Camel enters into it because of how envious he is of the twin machine guns. There are also plenty of examples of his gun freezing up on him, which he handled by a combination of violence and getting to lower altitude where it was warmer.

[ZonkerRoberts]

This is one of the very few YouTube channels where not only are the comments worth reading, they're often almost as good as the video. Very informative stuff here. My thanks to all who contributed.

[maxsmodels]

Forgot to mention, some guys use guitar stings. They are round but the are so small you can't really tell....unless you are a member of the holy order of rivet counters. Gaspatch actually makes turnbuckles but those take super patience...but man do they look good when you are done!

[maxsmodels]

Hi Greg, yes the directional bracing RAF wires are almost more like straps. I was just admiring it on the Camel and the Udvar-Hazy branch of the Smithsonian Air & Space museum recently. If I can find a good picture I will send it to you. Most of us just modelers just use the elastic "Easyline' because the scale is so small the RAF wire becomes hard to appreciate. That said, there are photoetched brass kits for RAF wire that are flat to simulate RAF wire properties. That is SO much fun at 1/72 scale but, it you can pull it off, you can have a museum grade model when you are done. You just need steady hands, a powerful opti-visor, good tools, good lighting and the patience of a monk. 😁