Airdrome Sopwith Camel Airdrome Sopwith Camel The Airdrome Sopwith Camel is an American amateur-built aircraft, designed and produced by Airdrome Aeroplanes, of Holden, Missouri. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for amateur construction. The aircraft is a full-scale replica of the First World War British Sopwith Camel fighter. The replica is built from modern materials and powered by modern engines. The Airdrome Sopwith Camel features a strut-braced biplane layout, a single-seat open cockpit, fixed conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration. The aircraft fuselage is made from welded 4130 steel tubing, covered in doped aircraft fabric. The Airdrome Sopwith
Sopwith Pup takeoff experiments. In 1915, Sopwith produced a personal aircraft for the company's test pilot Harry Hawker, a single-seat, tractor biplane powered by a 50 hp Gnome rotary engine. This became known as Hawker's Runabout; another four similar aircraft have been tentatively identified as Sopwith Sparrows. Sopwith next developed a larger fighter that was heavily influenced by this design, though more powerful and controlled laterally with ailerons rather than by wing warping. The resulting aircraft was a single-bay, single-seat biplane with a fabric-covered wooden framework and staggered equal-span wings. The cross-axle type main landing gear was supported by V-struts attached to