Sopwith Camel F.1

Built to turn

10 m · person 1.75 m · behind it, the A380 at the same scale

The story

The engine, fuel, guns and pilot were packed into the first two metres of the fuselage, and the spinning pulled the nose hard to the right. It was unforgiving to learn and brilliant in a dogfight, and it shot down more enemy aircraft than any other Allied fighter of the war.

Its name came from the hump of the metal fairing over its two Vickers machine guns, which fired through the propeller with a gear that to pass between the blades. The Camel was tail-heavy and so quick to answer the controls that it killed many pilots in training, while the best used the rotary's pull to turn right faster than any opponent could follow.

Nearly 5,500 were built. On 21 April 1918 , the Red Baron, was killed while chasing a Camel of No. 209 Squadron low over the Somme. That August a Camel flown off a barge towed behind a destroyer shot down the Zeppelin L 53.

How it works

Why the Camel turned like nothing else. The crankshaft is bolted to the airframe and everything else spins: nine cylinders, the crankcase and the propeller, about 170 kg turning at 1,250 rpm. That spinning mass snapped the Camel into right turns; the scale reads the torque it puts on the airframe.

How the Camel fired through its own propeller. Once a turn a cam on the shaft sends a pulse of oil to each gun's trigger, timed so the round crosses while the blades lie clear of the muzzles. Raise the engine speed and the shots still slip between the blades, every second or third turn.

The whole aircraftDrag to turn it, and pinch to zoom. Pick a part to fly the camera to it.

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Specifications

Top speed: 185 km/h
Wingspan: 8.5 m
Max weight: 659 kg
Ceiling: 6,400 m
Range: 485 km
In 12 seconds: 617 m
Power: 130 hp Clerget rotary

Where it flew

Western Front, First World War

Flanders, near Bailleul. The airfields of 1917 are farmland again. The simulator starts here, over today's ground and imagery of the place.

Fly it yourself

Take the Sopwith Camel up in 3D, with its real weight, wing area and power.

Climb to 1,000 m and roll it through a full turn.