The Wings of The Sopwiths

A history of Australian aviation from 1914-1919 and much more.

cam, 140 words, 1 comment, Sopwith, Fokker, Aerofoil

The aerofoil is where a large amount of the lift for an aircraft is generated. The profiles of the Sopwith Pup, Triplane, Camel and Dolphin aerofoils suggest that the British aerodynamic technologies did not advance much during World War I. The aerofoil is pretty similar for all those aircraft.

Sopwith Aerofoils

These are from a German magazine publication from the early 1900s.

Source: Mike Fletcher

The aerofoil for the Sopwith Scouts were all remarkably similar, suggesting that British aerodynamic technology didn't advance much from 1915 to 1918. The German Gőttingen aerofoil, by comparison, allowed for slower stall characteristics which made aircraft easier to handle. The Sopwiths, Spads and SE5a had relatively thin wings which often meant stall behaviour came quickly, unlike German aircraft such as the Fokker DVII and Fokker DrI.

More reading: AFC Tags, Sopwith, Fokker, Aerofoil

Comments

ajcooper . # .

Superior German aerofoils: The funny thing is that the Germans didn\'t get much payoff from their more advanced aerofoils. For example, their 1918 scouts were slower than the British types with their old-technology flat & thin aerofoils. Another example: the postwar Junkers F.13, justifiably trumpeted as it is as the world\'s first unbraced metal monoplane airliner, was a very slow machine. The old technology D.H.50 cruised just as fast on the same horsepower.
These early German aerofoils were thick & highly cambered. The Junkers in the Deutsches Museum in Munich is a very large, solid, and imposing machine, & its wing is huge. Somehow the payoff for all the Germans\' good science did not come until the addition of flaps, stressed skin, variable pitch props, retractable undercarriages etc - and all this was scooped by the Americans! The lazy British did not suffer any practical disadvantage until they were swamped by superior US aeroplanes in the 1930s.