Sopwith Triplane Sopwith Triplane The Sopwith Triplane was a British single seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War. It was the first military triplane to see operational service. The Triplane joined Royal Naval Air Service squadrons in early 1917 and was immediately successful. It was nevertheless built in comparatively small numbers and was withdrawn from active service as Sopwith Camels arrived in the latter half of 1917. Surviving Triplanes continued to serve as operational trainers until the end of the war. The Triplane began as a private venture by the Sopwith Aviation Company.
Thomas Sopwith racing. Sopwith's house in Mayfair, No. 46 Green Street, where he lived from 1934 until 1940, has a blue plaque. In 1940 he moved to Warfield Hall in Berkshire which he had acquired the previous year. Sopwith's 100th birthday was marked by a flypast of military aircraft over his home, Compton Manor in King's Somborne, Hampshire. He died in Hampshire on 27 January 1989, aged 101. His grave and that of his second wife Phyllis Brodie can be found in the grounds of the 11th-century All Saints Church at Little Somborne near Winchester. Thomas Sopwith Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith,