WW1 Sopwith Camel With Original Rotary Engine
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2015
- Get four FREE full length documentaries from Historical Machines TV by logging in with your TH-cam account using the link below. This Video: The Vintage Aviator's Sopwith F.1 Camel is shown here during a display at the Tauranga City Classics Of The Sky airshow held at Tauranga Airport, New Zealand. Capably flown by Gene De Marco this aircraft features an original 160hp Gnome rotary engine which is almost 100 years old.
Historical Machines TV Offer: historicalmachines.tv/yt/197-...
--
Copyright © 2015 Historical Aviation Film Unit
www.aviationfilm.com
This video material may not be reproduced in any form (except as an embedded video on any other website), without the written permission of the Historical Aviation Film Unit.
#aviationfilm #sopwithcamel #HAFU #ww1warbirds #thevintageaviator
I hear Canadian Air Force is ordering 23 of them to replace their aging aircraft.
I love the absurdly short take-off. That plane practically taxied straight into the air 😂
I met Tom Sopwith in 1983, I was 17, he was an incredible man to talk to
Those engines had one speed: On. You slow it down by cutting the ignition. That's why the occasional sputtering.
I had the pleasure of reading a diary of a WWI pilot by the name of Santa-Maria. He was a young Cuban who wanted to spice up his life, so he joined the RAF where he flew the Sopwith Camel. He called it "a nice bus". Most of his squadron was killed during training and battle. He survived some close calls, and an ear infection got him grounded for the remainder of the war. He said of war, "Next time there is another war to fight, I think I would rather not."
there's something about that "BRRAAAAAAA-PT-PT-PT-PT BRAAAAA-PT-PT-PT-PT" sound that's so satisfying
I learned to read at the age of 7 ~ 8 ~ 9 by reading Biggles books. So I learned a little bit about this thing. It was pretty much the most effective allied fighter plane of WW1. It was very tricky to fly, some things were intuitive, many were not. Young men learned to fly, in something like a Bristol Boxkite, and then transitioned to one of these. Then they were sent to the front. When they got there, they often had 10 ~ 14 hours experience - not in the Camel, total. Once they arrived at their squadron, their life expectancy (50% dead by) was 10 ~ 12 days. Yet they had no shortage of volunteers. It got you out of the trenches. That says something rather nasty about trench warfare, I think... The common engines were a 110 hp Le Rone, a 130 hp Le Rone, or a 150 hp Bentley. The 160 hp Gnome did exist, but it was not common. The smaller Le Rones had no throttle, you used the ignition switch. Not sure about the 130, but the Bentley did have a throttle, but many pilots just used it like the smaller Le Rones because they were used to that.
It's actually amazing how quickly aviation advanced in the following two decades. The first prototype spitfire flew in 1936 I believe. That's just a 20 year difference.
Absolutely mesmerised for five minutes. The Camel was my childhood dream and to be able to sit and watch one flying in all its glory with an original engine, over 100 years since it saw action blows my mind.
Hmm....sounds like Uncle Chuck after he had a bowl of chili.
For those that do not know. These were nine cylinder engines, and they controlled the engine speed by a selectable mechanism that gave you the choice of: nine, six, or three cylinder operation. Hence the rough sound when three or six were selected.
Airborne in four seconds. Now with a stronger head wind I'm certain we could cut that in half. Nice! :)
One of the best fighters of WW1. In the hands of a skilled pilot, it was an amazing enemy killing machine. In the hands of an unskilled pilot, it was an amazing pilot killing machine. The pilot flying this one was highly skilled.
These old planes with rotary engines have a nostalgic and scary vibe to it, impossible to not love it.
For those not familiar with Gnome rotary engines, the crankshaft is fixed to the airplane and the entire engine and propeller rotate around the crankshaft. The great mass of the rotating engines creates huge gyroscopic forces, as seen when the engine first starts.
The reason for those cool scarves they wore.. apart from keeping the draft out, was to wipe their goggles clean of castor oil and the likes spewed out by the engine.
Keep in mind that these are "rotory" engines, not "radials", even though the cylinders were arrayed in a radial pattern. The difference is that in a rotary the cylinders and crank case are rigidely attached to the prop and go around a fixed crank shaft. Given the mechanical complexities of fine control of spark advance and throttle position and fuel flow in such a situation, it wasn't done. The engines were designed to run flat out, and then the spark would be interrupted to control the power. This is why the engine was off all together on the final approach. It was simple, reliable, and effective.
A highly spirited display by probably the most experienced WW1 vintage aircraft aviator in the world,this is the way they flew the Sopwith Camel in combat and actually used the torque of the spinning rotary engine to advantage,get it wrong and you were in real trouble,wood and fabric plus rigging wires made for a very strong lightweight structure that was well engineered for its day,these replicas are built to the original drawings to incredible detail by real craftsmen,long may their skills continue and these works of art be seen in our skies today.
It needs like 5 meters of free space to take off. Thats defenetly cool.
Watch how the planes rocks back and forth at startup. The physical strain on the pilots was incredible. You see videos of pilots returning from missions completely exhausted. These things were beasts to fly