__NOTOC__ The Sopwith Admiralty Type 807 was a 1910s

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, ...

biplane seaplane designed and built for the Admiralty by 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 ...

Development

In July 1914, Sopwith produced a two-

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tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...

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 ...

Gnome Monosoupape The ''Monosoupape'' ( French for single-valve), was a rotary engine design first introduced in 1913 by Gnome Engine Company (renamed Gnome et Rhône in 1915). It used a clever arrangement of internal transfer ports and a single pushrod-operated ...

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 ...

to compete in the 1914 ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' Circuit of Britain race for seaplanes.Mason ''Air Enthusiast'' Twenty, pp. 76–77. It made its maiden flight as a landplane on 16 July 1914, before being fitted with its planned floatplane undercarriage. On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 the Circuit of Britain aircraft was bought by the RNAS . A version of the circuit of Britain aircraft was ordered by the Admiralty, becoming known as the Type 807.Robertson 1970, pp. 212–213. First delivered to the

RNAS The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

in July 1914 the Type 807 differed from the Circuit of Britain in several respects. The span of the upper wing was increased, the overhang being braced by

kingposts A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above fro ...

and the wings were adapted to fold, using the

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

patented mechanism; to simplify this, the wings were not staggered.Lewis 1962, p490. It had twin strut-mounted floats under the fuselage and a float mounted under the tail. It was powered by a nose-mounted 100 hp (75 kW)

engine. It had two tandem open cockpits with the observer in the forward cockpit under the upper wing leading edge and the pilot in the rear cockpit under the upper wing trailing edge. It was sometimes referred to as the Sopwith Folder. Sopwith developed the Circuit of Britain aircraft into a landplane (the

Sopwith Two-Seat Scout __NOTOC__ The Sopwith Two-Seat Scout (or Type 880) was a 1910s British biplane Anti-Zeppelin scout biplane designed and built for the Admiralty by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It was nicknamed the Spinning Jenny due to a tendency to enter a spi ...

)

Operational history

The Circuit of Britain aircraft was given the

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''896'' when it was taken over by the Royal Navy. Its undercarriage was damaged in September, causing it to be refitted with a landplane undercarriage. It was used as a trainer until 22 June 1915. Twelve Type 807s were ordered by the RNAS. Three of them formed part of the embarked air wing aboard the

seaplane carrier A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are rega ...

HMS ''Ark Royal'' when it sailed for the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

in February 1915. They were used as reconnaissance aircraft, but proved to be underpowered, with fragile floats.Robertson 1970, pp. 53–55.

Operators

; *

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

Specifications

Notes

References