Sopwith 1A2 (1 ½ Strutter) [in english]

TWIN-SEATER, SINGLE-ENGINED FIGHTER/ BOMBER

HISTORY

In 1915, the British Admiralty requested a new twin-seater bomber to be used in the Western Front during the WWI. The Sopwith company, using the design skills of F. Sigrist and H. Smith completed the design and construction of a prototype in December 1915. The configuration of the attachment of the upper wing to the fuselage was unique in its use of interplane and cabine struts in a trestle shape.

The French authorities were very impressed by the design and the performances of the aircraft, and decided to build their own variants in 1916 (a total of 4,200 built by Amiot, Bessoneau, Darraq, Lioré & Olivier, Hanriot, Sarazin, SFA and REP). Between February and May 1918 the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps purchased 514 machines from the French (384 recos + 130 bombers).
The Aviation Maritime Française flew between 1920 and 1922 twenty examples known as the Sopwith 1A2. They operated from NAS Saint-Raphaël within the Aviation d'Escadre.

One of them, was the first twin-seater plane to land on the deck of the CV Béarn in October 1920. They were armed with a Vickers & a Lewis guns and four 25 lbs bombs.

SPECIFICATIONS (US) (FR)

LENGTH 25. 2 ft 7. 69 m

WINGSPAN 33. 4 ft 10. 21 m

HEIGHT 10. 23 ft 3. 12 m

WEIGHTS 1 305 lb (min)/ 2 149 lb (max) 592 kg kg (min)/ 975 kg (max)

MAX SPEED 104 mph 167 km/ h

ENDURANCE 3 h 45 min 3 h 45 min

OUTPUT 130 hp 96 kW

sources - acknowledgements :
Lucien Morareau
"l'Aviation Maritime Française pendant la Grande Guerre - Lucien Morareau, Robert Feuilloy, Jean-Louis Courtinat, Thierry Le Roy et Jean-Paul Rossignol ARDHAN 1999

[AIRCRAFT MENU] [MAIN MENU] [HOME]