The Sopwith Snapper 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 ...

fighter aircraft 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 fig ...

. 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 ...

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 ...

to replace the

Sopwith Snipe The Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe was a British single-seat biplane fighter of the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was designed and built by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War, and came into squadron service a few weeks before the end of th ...

fighter, it first flew after the end of the war, but did not enter service owing to the failure of its engine, only three aircraft being built.

Development and design

In 1918, the British

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

developed a requirement for a single-seat fighter to replace the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

s, even though the Snipe had yet to enter service. This requirement, RAF Type 1, specified the new ABC Dragonfly air-cooled

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ...

, which had been ordered into production in large numbers on the basis of excellent promised performance and ease of production despite the fact that it had yet to complete testing. To meet this requirement, Sopwith produced two new and completely different designs, a

triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The triplane arrangement may ...

(the Sopwith Snark) and a more conventional biplane, which was named the Snapper. The Air Ministry ordered three prototype Snappers, along with three Snarks.Bruce 1969, p.56. (In addition Sopwith received orders for 300 Dragonfly powered Snipes as the

Sopwith Dragon The Sopwith Dragon was a British single-seat fighter biplane developed from the Sopwith Snipe. Design and development In April 1918, the sixth Snipe prototype was fitted with a 320 hp (239 kW) ABC Dragonfly I radial engine.Mason 19 ...

). The Snapper was a small single-bay biplane with heavily

staggered Stagger or staggered may refer to: * Stagger (aeronautics), the horizontal positioning of a plane's wings *Stagger, a motorsport term for the difference in size between right and left tires * ''Stagger'' (EP), by Poppy, 2022 * ''Staggered'' (f ...

wings. It was originally intended to have a wooden

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

fuselage (as did the Sopwith Snail lightweight fighter and the Snark), but this was abandoned to ease production, with a more conventional wire-braced fabric covered fuselage substituted.Mason 1992, p.147. The cockpit was positioned aft of the wings, providing good visibility to the pilot, while two forward firing synchronised

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a 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 men to move and ...

s were mounted on the fuselage top decking.Bruce 1957, p.634. The change in fuselage design delayed production of the fuselage, with further delays being caused by the engine which was overweight, and suffered from catastrophic reliability and vibration problems. The first Snapper flew at

Brooklands Brooklands was a Auto racing, motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's fir ...

in May 1919, soon followed by the other two aircraft. Although performance was good when the Dragonfly was working correctly, the engines problems were unsolvable, with the engine eventually being cancelled in September 1919. Although Sopwith attempted to enter one of the Snappers (with the civil registration ''K149'') into the 1919

Aerial Derby The Aerial Derby was an air race in the United Kingdom sponsored by the ''Daily Mail'' in which the competitors flew a circuit around London. It was first held in 1912, with subsequent races in 1913 and 1914. Suspended during the First World War ...

where it was to be flown by

Harry Hawker Harry George Hawker, MBE, AFC (22 January 1889 – 12 July 1921) was an Australian aviation pioneer. He was the chief test pilot for Sopwith and was also involved in the design of many of their aircraft. After the First World War, he co-fou ...

, this was forbidden by the Air Ministry''Flight'': 26 June 1919, p.847. (officially as its engine was still classified as Secret) and the three Snappers were used for test flying by the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in me ...

.Bruce 1969, pp.56-57.

Specifications

Notes

References

The Aerial Derby
. ''

Flight Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can b ...

'', 26 June 1919, pp. 837–847. *Bruce, J.M. ''British Aeroplanes 1914-18''. London:Putnam, 1957. *Bruce, J.M. ''War Planes of the First World War: Fighters Volume Three''. London:Macdonald, 1969. . *Mason, Francis K. ''The British Fighter since 1912''. Annapolis, USA:Naval Institute Press, 1992. .

External links

Photo
{{Sopwith Aviation Company aircraft 1910s British fighter aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1919 Snapper

Development and design

Specifications

See also

Notes

References

External links