The Sopwith Wallaby was a British single-engined long-range biplane built during 1919 by

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 ...

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

Development

The Wallaby was designed to compete in an Australian government £10,000 prize for an

England to Australia flight In 1919 the Australian government offered a prize of £A10,000 for the first Australians in a British aircraft to fly from Great Britain to Australia. Of the six entries that started the race, the winners were pilot Ross Smith, his brother Kei ...

. It was a single-engined biplane powered by a

Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII The Rolls-Royce Eagle was the first aircraft engine to be developed by Rolls-Royce Limited. Introduced in 1915 to meet British military requirements during World War I, it was used to power the Handley Page Type O bombers and a number of ...

engine. It had an open cockpit with two seats that could be retracted inside the enclosed cabin.

Operational history

The Wallaby registered ''G-EAKS'' departed Hounslow on 21 October 1919 for Australia. On 17 April 1920 it crashed on the island of

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

in the Dutch East Indies. It was shipped to Australia and re-built as an 8-seater transport and was used by Australian Aerial Services.

Operator

; *

Australian Aerial Services Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

Specifications

References

* *.

External links

* Contemporary technical description, with photographs and drawings, of the airplane and the planned flight from England to Australia. {{Sopwith Aviation Company aircraft 1910s British airliners

Wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized Macropodidae, macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same Taxonomy (biology), taxon ...