The Sopwith 3F.2 Hippo was a prototype

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

two-seat

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was a single-engined

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

with considerable negative stagger. It was not successful, the

Bristol F.2 Fighter The Bristol F.2 Fighter is a British First World War two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft developed by Frank Barnwell at the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It is often simply called the Bristol Fighter, ''"Brisfit"'' or ''"Biff"'' ...

(already in production) being preferred by the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

Development and design

In the summer of 1917, the

Sopwith Aviation Company The Sopwith Aviation Company was a British aircraft company that designed and manufactured aeroplanes mainly for the British Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps and later the Royal Air Force during the First World War, most famously ...

designed a two-seat fighter aircraft, the 3F.2 Hippo, possibly to replace the

Sopwith 1½ Strutter The Sopwith Strutter was a British single- or two-seat multi-role biplane aircraft of the First World War.Lake 2002, p. 40. It was the first British two-seat tractor fighter and the first British aircraft to enter service with a synchronised ...

in French service.Robertson 1970, p. 228. While the British Air Board did not place an order for the Hippo, it did grant Sopwith a licence to allow it to build prototypes as a private venture. The Hippo was designed to give the best possible view to the pilot and gunner, which dictated the aircraft's shape. Its two-bay wings had heavy (2 ft 3 in (0.69 m)) negative stagger, with the pilot sitting ahead of the upper wing and the gunner sitting behind the rear spar of the upper wing. The fuselage filled the gap between the wings, with the crew's heads level with the upper wing and cutouts in the wing's forward and trailing edges for the pilot and gunner. The pilot was armed with two synchronised

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

s, while the observer was provided with two Lewis guns on a rocking pillar mount. It was powered by a Clerget 11 eleven-cylinder

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and i ...

, chosen as it was not heavily used.Mason 1992, p. 123. The first prototype Hippo flew on 13 September 1917.Green and Swanborough 1994, p. 538. When tested, it was found to have sluggish controls and poorer performance than the

which was already in service. Despite these results, which meant that there was little chance of it being built for the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

, Sopwith rebuilt the Hippo, with increased dihedral on the upper wing, reduced wing stagger and an enlarged tailfin. The crude rocking pillar mount for the gunner's Lewis guns was replaced by a more conventional

Scarff ring The Scarff ring was a type of machine gun mounting developed during the First World War by Warrant Officer (Gunner) F. W. Scarff of the Admiralty Air Department for use on two-seater aircraft. The mount incorporated bungee cord suspension in eleva ...

mounting a single Lewis gun.Bruce 1969, pp. 5–6. The rebuilt prototype flew in April 1918, with a second prototype following in June. No further production followed.

Specifications

Notes

Some sources suggest that, rather than a rebuilt first prototype, that the Hippo with reduced stagger was a new aircraft.

References

*Bruce, J. M. ''British Aeroplanes 1914–18''. London: Putnam, 1957. *Bruce, J. M. ''War Planes of the First World War: Volume Three Fighters''. London: Macdonald, 1969. . *Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon. ''The Complete Book of Fighters''. New York: Smithmark, 1994. . *Mason, Francis K. ''The British Fighter since 1912''. Annapolis, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1992. . *Robertson, Bruce. ''Sopwith-The Man and his Aircraft''. Letchworth, UK: Air Review, 1970. . {{Sopwith Aviation Company aircraft 1910s British fighter aircraft

Hippo The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant ...

Aircraft first flown in 1917 Rotary-engined aircraft Biplanes with negative stagger

Development and design

Specifications

See also

Notes

References