Aviation Heritage Museum, Bull Creek, Western Australia

There's no ambiguity about this one; the museum's website makes it clear that this is in fact a three-quarter scale replica of one of the most famous fighter aircraft of World War I. And a fine example it is too.

Apparently both the engine and propeller are real examples, so it's remarkable that they meshed as well as they did.

"So what is a Sopwith Camel?", some of you of later generations and unaware of Biggles may ask.

Thomas Sopwith (1888-1989; yes, he lived to be 101) was an aviation enthusiast, motor cyclist, businessman and all round sporty character who founded the Sopwith Aviation Company in December 1913 when he was 24.

Within a year the world was at war. The pendulum of aircraft development swung back and forth between the Allies and the German Empire (more frequently leaning the latter way, I would say). A plane that was the new battlefield dominator could be obsolete a year afterwards. A lot of this had to do with forward facing guns. As I mentioned in image 30294, the early B.E.2 gunner had to somehow fire in a limited arc when the pilot behind him couldn't clearly see the target or follow it, and had to do it without shooting his own wings and propeller off.

The obvious solution was to have the guns firing forward so that the pilot could keep the plane pointed at the target. The obvious problem was that with a tractor (propeller in front) design (which was more efficient than "pusher" (propeller behind) designs), the propeller was in the way of shooting forward. (Putting the guns in the wings was not an option; they were simply a lightweight wooden framework bound in fabric. You couldn't build a wing strong AND light enough to hold guns.)

Creating a mechanical synchroniser to ensure that the gun only fired through the propeller was the best way to resolve this, and both sides worked on it. The first to truly succeed were the Germans with the Fokker Eindecker. The advantage that it gave them caused the "Fokker Scourge" of July 1915 to early 1916.

The aforementioned Sopwith company turned its designer Herbert Smith (1889-1977) to the problem, and by early 1916 the Sopwith Pup was born. Entering use in October 1916, 1,796 were built. With an 80 hp Le Rhone engine, it had a maximum speed of 180 km/h (97 knots) and could climb to 17,500 feet. It had a single synchronised Vickers .303 gun. And it looked quite a bit like what you see here.

That's because there never was a Sopwith Camel... officially. There was only the Sopwith Big Pup... which is a really stupid name for a fighter aircraft. The pilots thought so too and christened it the "Camel" based on the slight "hump" where the cockpit was, and the name stuck in the public imagination.

The name was also inaccurate because the "Big Pup" was in most respects physical smaller than its predecessor. Height: 8'6" (2.59m) vs 9'5", length 18'9" vs 19'3.75", wing area 231 sq ft (21.5sq m) vs 254 sq ft. The Camel's wingspan was a bit larger (28' vs 26'6") and it was certainly heavier (659kg gross vs 556kg gross), but that was down to a heavier, more powerful engine. Both had a 9 cylinder air cooled rotary piston engine, but the Pup's was a Le Rhone of 80hp (60kw), the Camel's a Clerget 9a or Clerget 9B of 130hp (97kw). More important was the fact that the Camel carried twin Vickers machine guns which were necessary to keep up with the increased firepower of the German machines of the time, and which added to the weight.

The new engine added only 2 km/h (1 knot) to the Camel's speed over the Pup, though the ceiling increased by 1,500 feet to 19,000 feet. More importantly, the absolutely bitching torque from the new engine allowed the Camel to do a right-hand turn and dive before the German opposition knew where the thing was. Unfortunately, that tendency (combined with an odd weight distribution along the length of the aircraft) made the camel difficult to fly and more pilots were lost in training accidents than were lost to enemy action. In experienced hands, however, the Camel was deadly, at least when it came out in 1917. Like its predecessor the Pup, it would be obsolete within a year (as a fighter, at least). It would be retired completely in 1920.

Nonetheless, 5,490 of them were ordered, and they were credited with downing 1,294 enemy aircraft, the largest number shot down by any specific type.

Addendum: My personal opinion is that Facebook is a sociopathic organisation that steals other peoples' intellectual property (including the images in this gallery) despite being explicitly denied permission to do so.