Kit Ref: 32008
Price around US$ 69.00 (February 2014)
Feature Article by Dave Coward
Our thanks to Wingnut Wings for supplying our review sample. Get this kit and all the other superb kits in the WW range here now at: www.wingnutwings.com
We have multiple builds of Wingnut Wings kits… just check out your Finished Now area in SMN.
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A note from Geoff…
As Dave had worked super-quickly I have a photo of his completed model – here it is and how nice is that? Very different to many British and Allied WWI types yet very graceful I think in lines and shape. So how did Dave get on with his build? Let’s find out…
Background
Sopwith’s wonderful 80hp Scout (Pup) immediately impressed when unveiled in February 1916 and quickly went into service with the RFC (Royal Flying Corps) and RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service) and long term production (see Wingnut Wings models 32013 and 32016). Sopwith’s follow up machine, the 110hp Clerget 9z powered Sopwith Triplane prototype N500 was approved on 28 May 1916, only 4 months after the Pup prototype. It was sent to France in mid June 1916 for trials with A Sqn (later 1 Naval Sqn) RNAS where it was reportedly sent into action as soon as it arrived. A 2nd prototype, the 130hp Clerget 9b powered N504, was flying by August 1916 and was similarly dispatched to France for trials. Even more powerful and manoeuvrable than the highly respected Pup, Sopwith’s new Triplane or ‘Tripehound’ (often shortened to ‘Tripe’) as it became known, was an instant hit with the young RNAS pilots lucky enough to fly them. Although superficially similar to the Sopwith Pup, the Tripe fuselage was designed from the outset for the larger 110hp & 130hp Clerget engines. The wingspan was the same but the triple ‘short chord’ wings afforded greater visibility, more manoeuvrability and a phenomenal rate of climb. Although initially armed only with a single Vickers machine gun like the Pup, the Tripe could out-climb and out-manoeuvre the best German fighters of the time, the twin gun Albatros D.II & D.III (and later D.V), and it was faster too!
