Fighter aircraft use "C" (Nieuport 17 C.1). Although the term "fighter" specifies aircraft designed to shoot down other aircraft, such designs are often also useful as multirole fighter-bombers, strike fighters, and sometimes lighter, fighter-sized tactical ground-attack aircraft. This has always been the case, for instance the Sopwith Camel and other "fighting scouts" of World War I performed a great deal of ground-attack work. In World War II, the USAAF and RAF often favored fighters over dedicated light bombers or dive bombers, and types such as the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and Hawker Hurricane that were no longer competitive as aerial combat fighters were
Sopwith Sociable Sopwith Sociable The Sopwith Sociable (or sometimes Churchill or Tweenie) was a British single-engined two-seat tractor configuration biplane designed and built by Sopwith for the Royal Naval Air Service. The Sociable, so called because the crew were seated side-by side rather than in tandem, was ordered by the British Admiralty for use as a training aircraft by the Royal Naval Air Service. It was two-bay biplane powered by a Gnome Monosoupape radial. The Sociable was given serial number "149" by the Admiralty and first flew from Brooklands on 17 February 1914. Two days after its first flight, the Sociable was