The Sopwith Camel Was An Awesome WW1 Fighter

The Sopwith Camel was one of the most successful British fighter aircraft during the First World War. First entering service in June 1917, almost 5,500 examples of the type were built by the end of the war in November 1918.

This aircraft is powered by a 160 hp Gnome Monosoupape (single valve type) rotary engine This engine has no carburetor or throttle, and since most of its air supply was taken in through the exhaust valve, it could not be controlled by adjusting the air supply to the crankcase like other rotary engines of the time.

The engine is controlled by a 'blip switch' which cuts out the ignition when pressed. Some Monosoupapes are fitted with a selector switch which allows the pilot to cut out three or six cylinders instead of all nine (when hitting the switch), so each cylinder fired only once per three engine revolutions.

Rotary engines had to be precisely balanced, requiring precision machining of all parts. As a result, they were expensive to build, the 100 horsepower models costing $4,000 in 1916 (approx. $89,000 in 2017 US dollars).

The Wings Over Wairarapa Airshow (now 'Air Festival') has been held at Hood Aerodrome in Masterton (New Zealand) every two years, for over two decades.

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[bobdyer]

Beautiful slide slip, made for a great landing.

[andrewperry]

What beautiful landing. Biggles would be proud

[petejohnson]

Great video, these old biplanes had a truly awesome sound!

[jaycam]

Always wondered why it sounded like it was about to stall... the blip switch... nice.... thanks again for the info!

[JohnJohansen]

Now that...
That was one amazing video!
Those WWI planes are fantastic early aviation.
It was totally new to me, that the engine regulations were that rudimentary.
Thanks for a great video!

[bryanmchugh]

I will never understand why we replaced these with the F-22 Raptor...

[canuckprogressive.]

I would love to see WW1 era airplanes do an Immelmann. Nobody does aerobatics in these machines anymore.

[curtite]

The real McCoy rotary! Clerget, Le Rhone or Oberursel engine is rare treat to hear or seen flown since Ole Rhinebeck Aerodrome. Thank you so much for sharing ;-))

[grahamwood]

That was the most perculier sounding plane ever, but now I know why. Fascinating, And what a landing.

[LucyVanPelt]

This is the kind of plane my friend snoopy always is pretending to have. So this is what a real sopwith camel looks and sounds like

[alecboyyes]

A sound that inspires total confidence!

[unknowntraveller]

I was waiting for Biggles to make an appearance

[ghostface]

I think the lesser known and more rare version was the tf1 which was armored and with its machine guns angled down to help with anti ground abilities plus the f1 was capable of mounting 25lb bombs for bunker busting

[joylunn]

We were watching something similar the other night and I said to the OH that everything was on top of the engine, the pilot, the gun, the petrol tank, then the commentator mentioned that everything was within 7ft of the propellor. I'm in the wrong job.

[bigred]

To think that’s a 100 year old aeroplane.

[Charlie_Ses]

You can see why they called them "kites"! They look as flimsy as kites, flapping around in the wind!! You'd need balls of steel to go up in a WW1 plane, with no parachute, to try and shoot others out the sky. You'd have to be a certain type of psychopath to give it a go I think.

[billchapel]

I thought the pilot had no carb linkage and just turning the ignition switch on and off, thanks for explaining.

[JohnWilson-tyos]

Sopwith Camel!
What a very English name!

[josezurita]

"El cielo está a punto de convertirse en otro campo de batalla no menos importante que los de tierra y mar [...] Para conquistar el aire, es necesario privar al enemigo de toda forma de volar, atacándolo en el aire, en sus bases de operación o en sus centros de producción. Será mejor que nos acostumbremos a esta idea y nos preparemos"

Giulio Douhet
(Caserta, 30 de Mayo 1869 - Albano, 15 de Febrero 1930)
Militar italiano en 1909, vaticinando el uso de los aviones para la guerra
Saludos desde Venezuela.

"The sky is about to become antoher battelfield no less important than those of land and sea...
To conquer the air, it is necessary to deprive the enemy of all forms of flight, attaking him in the air, in his operation bases or in their production centers. We´d better get used to this idea and prepare ourselves"

Giulio Douhet
(Caserta, May 30, 1869 - Albano, February 15, 1930)
Italian military in 1909, predicting the use of airplanes for war.
Greetings from Venezuela.

[abcdefg]

An excellent demonstration ! Many thanks for posting this, is this fitted with one of the new engines or is it an original ?