Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

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Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 167,649 pages of information and 247,065 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Sopwith: Pup

From Graces Guide
1916. Sopwith Pup. Exhibit at the Shuttleworth Collection.
Sopwith Pup. Exhibit at the Fleet Air Arm Museum.

Note: This is a sub-section of Sopwith Aircraft.

Type

  • Single-seat biplane fighter

Designers

Manufacturers

Production Dates

  • 1914-18

Number produced

  • 1,770

Engines

The Sopwith Pup was a single seater biplane fighter aircraft used by Great Britain in the First World War. It was manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company and was officially named the Sopwith Scout.

It was nicknamed the Pup because it looked like a smaller version of the two-seat Sopwith 1½ Strutter; the name Pup was not used officially as it was reportedly thought to be undignified. The Pup's docile flying characteristics made it the ideal aircraft to use in aircraft carrier deck landing and takeoff experiments.

The design was based on the personal plane of the company's test pilot, Harry Hawker. The Pup was a conventional biplane with a mainly wooden framework covered in fabric, with single bay, unswept, staggered, equal-span wings and a cross axle type main landing gear supported on V-struts attached to the fuselage lower longeron with a tail skid. Although it was rather underpowered by an 80 hp Le Rhone rotary engine, its performance was lively especially at altitude mainly due to a light wing loading.

Pilots valued the Pup because it was simple, reliable and pleasant to fly. Its large wing area gave it a good rate of climb and agility was enhanced by ailerons being fitted on all four wings. It had half the horsepower and armament of the German Albatros D.III, but was much more maneuverable than the German type, especially over 15,000 ft. Armament was a single 0.303 inch (7.7 mm) synchronized Vickers machine gun.

The Sopwith Pup was used by both the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). The first Pups reached the Western Front in October 1916, with No. 8 Squadron RNAS. The first RFC Squadron to re-equip with the Pup was No. 54 Squadron, which arrived in France in December. At the peak of its operational deployment, the type equipped only four RNAS squadrons (3, 4, 8 and 9), and three RFC units (54, 46 and 66 Squadrons). By spring 1917, the type was already outclassed by the newest German fighters and the RNAS had replaced theirs, first with Sopwith Triplanes, and then Sopwith Camels. The RFC Pup squadrons on the other hand had to soldier on, in spite of increasing casualties, until it was possible to replace the last front line Pups with Camels, in the Autumn of 1917.

Sopwith Pups were also used in many pioneering carrier experiments. On 2 August 1917, a Sopwith Pup flown by Sqn Cdr Edwin Dunning became the first aircraft to land aboard a moving ship, HMS Furious. Dunning was killed on his third landing when the Pup fell over the side of the ship. The Pup began operations on the carriers in early 1917; the first aircraft were fitted with skid undercarriages in place of the standard landing gear. Landings utilized a system of deck wires to "trap" the aircraft. Later versions reverted to the normal undercarriage. Sopwith Pups were used as ship-based fighters on three carriers: HMS Campania, Furious and Manxman. A number of other Pups were deployed to cruisers and battleships where they were launched from platforms attached to gun turrets.

The Pup was an excellent advanced trainer, and served as such for the remainder of the war and after - although many "trainer" Pups were in fact reserved by senior officers as their personal runabouts.

Manufacturers

Variants

  • Sopwith Admiralty Type 9901. The original Admiralty designation.
  • Sopwith Pup. Single-seat fighter scout biplane.
  • Sopwith Dove. Two-seat civilian biplane, only ten were built.
  • Alcock Scout. Aircraft built partially from the remains of a crashed Pup.

General characteristics

  • Crew: one, pilot
  • Length: 19 ft 3.75 in (5.9 m)
  • Wingspan: 26 ft 6 in (8.1 m)
  • Height: 9 ft 5 in (2.9 m)
  • Wing area: 254 ft² (23.60 m²)
  • Empty weight: 856 lb (388 kg)
  • Loaded weight: 1,225 lb (556 kg)
  • Max takeoff weight: 1,225 lb (556 kg)
  • Power-plant: 1× Le Rhone air-cooled rotary engine, 80 or 100 hp (60 or 75 kW)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 92 knots (106 mph, 171 km/h)
  • Service ceiling 18,500 feet (5,600 m)
  • Endurance: 3 hours

Armaments

  • 1 × .303 in (7.62 mm) Vickers machine gun fired forward through the propeller by means of an interrupter gear

The Shuttleworth Collection has an airworthy Sopwith Pup.

See Also

Sources of Information

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