On this day in aviation history, February 9, 1916, the Sopwith Pup made its first flight. A small fighter even for the standards of WWI, the Sopwith Pup was the darling of British pilots from the autumn of 1916 to the spring of 1917. It was a pioneer of shipborne aviation, and after its brief period of dominance over the Western Front, it served as a valuable trainer for new pilots before transitioning into aircraft such as its successor, the Sopwith Camel.
The aircraft that became known as the Sopwith Pup was derived from a private aircraft developed for Harry Hawker (test pilot for the Sopwith Aviation Company, and later co-founder and namesake of Hawker Aircraft), a small single-seat, single-engine biplane called the SLTBP (Sopwith Light Tractor Biplane), which was powered by a 50 hp Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine and had a set of staggered equal span wings. With some revisions by Sopwith’s chief engineer Herbert Smith, a new aircraft based on the SLTBP emerged from the Sopwith factory at Kingston upon Thames, England, and made its first flight on February 9, 1916.
After subsequent test flights, the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) began operational trials on the aircraft the British Admiralty designated as the Type 9901, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) also expressed interest in the Sopwith Scout, as it was officially named. The aircraft was powered by the 80 hp Le Rhône 9C rotary engine and was among the first British single-seat fighters to be equipped with a 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers synchronized machine gun to fire through the arc of its propeller using a synchronizer developed by aviation and radio engineer Harry Kauper.
At the same time of the Scout’s development, Sopwith had introduced the two-seater fighter and reconnaissance aircraft known as the 1½ Strutter (so named for the long and short cabane struts that supported the top wing). As the Scout bore a resemblance to the Sopwith ½ Strutter, pilots would nickname the aircraft as the Pup, and although many staff officers felt the name to be “undignified”, the pilot’s term was out of endearment, and this would become the popular term for the aircraft.
In October 1916, the Sopwith Pup would enter combat over the Western Front, flying with No. 8 Squadron RNAS at Dunkirk, flying operational sorties over the Somme at the end of 1916. By December 1916, the first RFC squadron equipped with Pups, No. 54 Squadron, arrived in France. The pilots of both the RNAS and the RFC loved the performance of their Pups for its light weight, good climb rate, and excellent agility (owing largely to its low wing loading and in having ailerons on both sets of its wings). British ace James McCudden was reported to have said “When it came to manoeuvring, the Sopwith [Pup] would turn twice to an Albatros’ once … it was a remarkably fine machine for general all-round flying. It was so extremely light and well surfaced that after a little practice one could almost land it on a tennis court.” It was not long before the Germans, despite possessing aircraft such as the Albatros D.III that often had two machine guns to the Pup’s one, and had more powerful inline engines, found themselves on the receiving end of the Pup’s maneuverability. Legendary German ace Manfred von Richthofen, also known as the Red Baron, was reported to have said “We saw at once that the enemy aeroplane was superior to ours.”
However, the units equipped with Sopwith Pups that were based in France were few; just four RNAS squadrons (Nos. 3, 4, 8 and 9), and three RFC squadrons (Nos. 54, 46 and 66), and by the spring of 1917, the Germans had reorganized their Jagdstaffels, and the British needed new fighters. The RNAS squadrons received theirs in the Sopwith Triplane, but while the Royal Aircraft Factory introduced the S.E.5 for RFC squadrons, some of the RFC squadrons flying Pups in France, including No. 54 Squadron, continued to fly their Pups until they were replaced by Sopwith Camels, though some of these squadrons kept at least one Pup for non-combat or personal uses such as “hack” aircraft.
In addition to the Pup’s brief stint in combat over the Western Front, the aircraft also served to defend Britain from aerial attack by German bombers. While the Germans never fully phased out the use of Zeppelin airships for bombing raids, the increasing losses due to improvements in British air defenses such as anti-aircraft artillery, as well as explosive and incendiary bullets used by intercepting aircraft, prompted the development of bombing airplanes that could cross the English Channel, bomb London, and return to bases on the North Sea coast, such as the Gotha bombers, which were smaller and often faster than the Zeppelins and caused more deaths and damage to property than the Zeppelin raids had. As a result, Royal Flying Corps Home Defence units, such as the newly-founded No 61 and No. 112 Squadrons, assigned to aerodromes around London were equipped with Sopwith Pups to intercept the Gothas. While the first Home Defence Pups were powered by the standard 80 hp (60 kW) Le Rhône, subsequent Home Defence Pups were re-equipped with the more powerful 100 hp (75 kW) Gnome Monosoupape, which provided an improved rate of climb, and were distinguishable by the addition of vents in the cowling face.
The Sopwith Pup also achieved breakthroughs in the field of naval aviation. On August 2, 1917, 25-year-old South African Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning of the Royal Naval Air Service used a Sopwith Pup built by the Beardmore Company, RNAS s/n N6453, to become the first pilot to land an airplane on a moving ship at sea by landing aboard the converted cruiser HMS Furious off the coast of the Royal Navy’s base at Scapa Flow. The Furious had been modified before its launching with a flight deck over its bow while retaining its superstructure. In order to land on the Furious, Dunning flew parallel to the ship off the Furious’ portside while the ship was steaming at 26 knots into a 21-knot wind. After altering his course to fly ahead of Furious, he lowered his speed until he was virtually hovering over the flight deck. On the deck were sailors who were tasked with grabbing ropes looped to the Pup’s lower wings and tail in order to literally manhandle the aircraft to the deck, while Dunning would immediately cut power to the Pup’s engine once the ropes were grabbed and became the first pilot to land an airplane on a moving ship.
However, tragedy would strike just five days later on August 7, while Squadron Commander Dunning was attempting to land again on the Furious, this time with instructions to the deckhands that they were stand by in order for Dunning to land the Pup unaided. After circumventing the Furious‘ bridge and funnel once again, the engine failed just as he was landing on the deck. Despite the frantic efforts of the deckhands, the Pup was carried into the wind and fell into the sea with the young aviator still in the cockpit. Knocked unconscious on impact and plunged inverted, Squadron Commander Edwin Dunning drowned before he could be rescued.
Once carrier operations had been improved, Sopwith Pups were flown off the Furious and two passenger steamers converted into seaplane tenders with flight decks (HMS Campania and HMS Manxman). Other Pups were launched from platforms and catapults built on Royal Navy battleships and battlecruisers, though these aircraft would be forced to ditch in the sea near British warships as the ships had no way to recover the Pups. It would be from the deck of the cruiser HMS Yarmouth that pilot 2nd Lt. Bernard A. Smart would shoot down the German Zeppelin LZ 66 (German Navy serial number L 23) on the night of August 21, 1917, just of the Danish coast near Jutland.
With the arrival of new aircraft such as the Sopwith Camel, the Sopwith Pup would pick a second line of work as an advanced single seat trainer. After student pilots would complete their basic flight training on twin-seater types such as the Avro 504K, they would graduate onto the Pup to learn how to maneuver in mock dogfights before going into frontline fighters such as the Camel or the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5. During WWI, a total of 1,796 Sopwith Pups would be built. However, the Sopwith Aeroplane Company only produced 96 examples, as they were devoted to other types such as the Sopwith Strutter and the Sopwith Camel, and the majority of Sopwith Pups were manufactured through sub-contractors. 850 were built by Standard Motor Company in Coventry, 820 by Whitehead Aircraft in Richmond, Surrey, and at least 30 by William Beardmore & Company in Glasgow, Scotland.
Besides the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, which were merged to become the Royal Air Force on April 1, 1918, Sopwith Pups were operated by the Australian Flying Corps (precursor to the Royal Australian Air Force), the Belgian Air Force, Greece’s Hellenic Navy, the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, the Romanian Air Corps, the Imperial Russian Air Service (with a single former example being flown by the Soviets during the Russian Civil War), and the United States Navy.
With the Armistice declared in 1918, the remaining Pups in service with the Royal Air Force were decommissioned and many were sold for scrap or sold to foreign air forces. The last ten Pups built at the Sopwith factory were converted into two-seater civilian aircraft and were marketed as the Sopwith Dove. One of these was later acquired in 1931 by Richard Shuttleworth, race car driver, aviator, and founder of the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, England. Shuttleworth had traded an Avro 504K to the Dove’s owner, Geoff Chamberlain and by February 1938, he had restored it to a stock single-seater Pup configuration with the civil registration G-EBKY. In 2004/5 the aircraft was extensively refurbished in the colors of Royal Naval Air Service serial number 9917, a Beardmore built aircraft which had served on the seaplane tender HMS Manxman.
Today only three original Sopwith Pups (not including the aforementioned Dove conversion) have survived to this day. B1807, built by the Standard Motor Company, was flown by several Home Defence Squadrons in the UK protect Britain from marauding German Gotha bombers (No 112 Squadron and No 36 Squadron) before being used for flight training. After the war, B1807 was stricken from the RAF inventory and came under the private ownership of Wing Commander A.R.M. Rickards of Fairford, Gloucestershire under the civil registration G-EAVX. On July 21, 1921, the aircraft was damaged when it nosed over on landing at Hendon Aerodrome in London during the Aerial Derby while being flown by Lester Forestier-Walker. Forestier-Walker emerged unscathed, but the Pup went into storage inside the famous Grahame-White Hangers at Hendon for the next two years, after which she moved to an estate in Dorset, neglected in a barn for the next five decades until rediscovered in 1972 by aviation enthusiast Kelvyne Baker. Since then, the aircraft has been ongoing a long-term restoration back to airworthiness at Henstridge Airfield in Somerset, England.
Another survivor is N5182, which was built in the Sopwith factory in 1916, and served in France during the First World War as recounted by the RAF Museum. The aircraft was delivered to No. 3 Squadron, RNAS, Dunkirk. On September 25, 1916, Captain Edward Rochefort Grange used N5182 to score an aerial victory against a Sablatnig SF-2 reconnaissance seaplane, whose remains, along with those of Leutnant zur See Soltenborn and Leutnant zur See Rothig were recovered by the Royal Navy in the waters off Ostend, Belgium, and Grange was awarded the Croix de Guerre for this action. Later on, N5182 was flown by No. 8 Squadron RNAS at Vert-Galand and saw further over the Somme front, being damaged by bullets from German observation aircraft gunners. By March 1917, Pup N5182 was sent back to England to serve in Home Defence squadrons against German Zeppelin and Gotha bomber raids before ending its military career as a combat trainer at RAF Manston.
In 1959, after the aircraft had fallen off official records, it was rediscovered by Lieutenant-Commander Kenneth Cortaine Desmond St. Cyrien, RAF, to be in the storage collection of the Musee de l’Air in Paris, France. After negotiating to have the aircraft returned to Britain, it was restored under the civil registration G-APUP. The aircraft made its first post-restoration flight on August 11, 1973, with pilot Neil Williams at the controls over Fairoaks Airport in Surrey, England. For the next decade, the aircraft was flown in various events throughout the UK until it was exchanged to the Royal Air Force Museum for a Spitfire LF Mk. XVIe, RAF s/n RW386 in June 1982. Originally displayed at the Hendon location in London, it is now on display at the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands location in Cosford, England.
Another Pup manufactured by Sopwith, s/n N5195, which also served in France and was later used for Home Defence and training units. Later, the aircraft went into storage for over 40 years in Lincoln, England, until it was purchased by Kenneth Cortaine Desmond St. Cyrien and restored to airworthiness as G-ABOX. N5195 is now on static display at the Army Flying Museum, Middle Wallop, Hampshire, England.
Besides these, there are numerous reproductions and replicas around the world, ranging from homebuilt aircraft with modern materials to meticulous reproductions constructed by The Vintage Aviator, Limited, of New Zealand, a world leader in building highly authentic WWI aircraft reproductions, powered by original WWI aircraft engines such as the Le Rhône 9C rotary engine used in original Sopwith Pups. Another reproduction can be found flying at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in upstate New York, one of the United States’ premier locales for airworthy WWI aircraft.
Australia has had two active Sopwith Pup replicas. They were built by Transavia in 1978, famous (or infamous) for the remarkable looking Airtruk. Both Pups are accurate in configuration, but have a metal frame fuselage and radial Armstrong Siddeley Genet engines. With the RAAF Museum for many years, now 100 Squadron RAAF, VH-PSP is painted ‘D4170’ serving with No. 8 (Training) Squadron, Australian Flying Corps based in the UK, and with a white emu on a red band. Dave Marshall’s Pup is registered VH-SOR, seen together here at the Tyabb’s 2018 airshow.
The Sopwith Pup has left behind a legacy among WWI aviation enthusiasts as an aircraft that was loved by those who flew it, respected by those who fought against it, and which is part of the linage that ties Sopwith with the later line of fighters developed by Hawker, from the Hawker Hart to the Hurricane, Tempest, Hunter, and Harrier.
Today in Aviation History is a series highlighting the achievements, innovations, and milestones that have shaped the skies. All the previous anniversaries are available HERE
Excellent informative article – thanks!