Sopwith Camel Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the earlier Sopwith Pup and became one of the most iconic fighter aircraft of the First World War. The Camel was powered by a single rotary engine and was armed with twin synchronized machine guns. Though proving difficult to handle, it provided for a high level of manoeuvrability to an experienced pilot, an attribute which was highly valued in the type's principal use as a fighter
Sopwith Atlantic flying boats, with John Cyril Porte selected to be the pilot, the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 put a stop to these plans. Following the Armistice ending the War on 11 November 1918, the competition was reopened, Thomas Sopwith, the head of the Sopwith Aviation Company decided to build an aircraft to compete for the prize. George Carter of Sopwith-based his design for the transatlantic aircraft on the single-engined Sopwith B.1 bomber aircraft. It was a large, two-bay biplane powered by a Rolls-Royce Eagle engine in a tractor configuration. It had a deeper fuselage than the