Sopwith Triplane

[mauld]

[vikingBerserker]

WOw, it looks like a little kid flying it. I had no idea it was that big.

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Me either Dave, excellent video Mauld, thank you for sharing!

[Gnomey]

Cool video, thanks for sharing!

[mudpuppy]

That's a good video; thanks for posting it.

[Wurger]

I echo the post above.

[mikewint]

Really neat. Looks like a copy of the German model. Did Sopwith ever make it into the war?

[pbfoot]

Really neat. Looks like a copy of the German model. Did Sopwith ever make it into the war?

Supposedly one of the best flights on allied side WW1 was an all Sopwith Tripe flight called the Black Flight
The Black Flight consisted of pilots who had formerly served with 3 Naval Wing, and were for the most part Canadians. The original members of the flight were Raymond Collishaw,DSO & bar,OBE,DSC,DFC (61 victories)in "Black Maria": William Alexander,DSC (23 victories) in "Black Prince"; Ellis Reid,DSC (19 victories)in "Black Roger"; John Sharman,DSC & bar (8 victories) in "Black Death"; and Gerald Nash,DSC (6 victories) in "Black Sheep".

[phas3e]

Really neat. Looks like a copy of the German model. Did Sopwith ever make it into the war?

Quite the opposite, the Fokker Dr.1 was a copy of the Sopwith Design, the Germans were so impresses with the Brithish Triplane, they had to have one of their own.

[nuuumannn]

A bit of info about the Tripe:

Equipping only RNAS units, the Triplane entered service with only three squadrons; 1 and 8 Squadrons in February 1917 and 10 Squadron in May that year. It was with this latter unit that the Triplane gained fame; Commanded by Canadian Ace Flight sub-Lieutenant Raymond Collishaw, the noses of ‘B’ Flight of 10 Squadron’s Triplanes were painted black and appropriately received the following names: Black Death, Black Maria (Collishaw’s aeroplane), Black Roger, Black Prince and Black Sheep. Between May and July 1917, Collishaw’s ‘B’ Flight shot down a total of 87 German aeroplanes.

The Dr I was, as my fellow Kiwi has intimated, based on the Sopwith, although the only thing that the Germans copied was the triplane layout. They were very different aeroplanes; the Dr I was more advanced structurally, being made of welded steel tube, with a box spar wing structure, although this was initially subject to structural failure. Fokker's designer Reinhold Platz was quite a visionary, originally designing what became the Dr I without interplane struts, but wing flutter justified the fitting of them.

The Sopwith however, was built of traditional materials and was a product of its time, and although it had a brief career, nestled between the Pup and the Camel, it was a most successful fighter. The Dr I was (and still is) overrated (this is largely due to the whole "Red Baron" legend, even though Richtofen only shot down 20 of his victories in Dr Is). Although manoeuvrable, it was slow and wasn't liked; it wasn't built in very large numbers. In reality it was only considered an interim until the much vaunted D VII arrived on the scene.

[mikewint]

thanks Guys, learn something every day. Always thought the German model was the original tri-plane and that the D VII preceeded it

[nuuumannn]

No worries Mikewint, the Dr I was derived from Platz' V 3 prototype, but without interplane struts; it was found due to flutter that these were required. The D VII came about over successive prototypes that Platz had built with the designator 'V' for Versuchsmaschine, experimental machine, or Verspannungsloser – wing without bracing after the first V 1 prototpe, which was a highly streamlined parasol monoplane with small stub wings below, more of a sesquiplane, I guess. The D VII was the production version of the V 11 prototype, which won the first D Types competition between single-seat fighter designs, held by the German Air Ministry in January 1918.