Sopwith Camel

The Sopwith Camel was intended as the successor to the Pup and was known as the "Big Pup" early on in it's development before the characteristic hump over it's twin Vickers earnt it the name the Camel. The Camel had much of it's weight within a small area around the centre of gravity, the Engine, fuel, ammunition and pilot were within an extremely short distance of the C/G. This gave the Camel highly unstable tendencies with a resultant manouevreable edge in combat. This instability was matched with a small rudder and a short fuselage, hence the Camel suffered from poor rudder authority. Subsequently the aircraft was well suited to experienced pilots stunting but also had a reputation for killing cadets, trainee's and novices. The Sopwith Camel is undoubtedly Sopwith's best known design and arguably the best British scout aircraft of the First World War.

Kits

1/72 Academy Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded
1/72 Airfix Sopwith 2F.1 Camel, Injection Moulded
1/72 Blue Rider Comic conversion for the Revell kit
1/72 Eduard Sopwith Camel Stripdown, Brass
1/72 Entex Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded
1/72 Ertl Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded
1/72 Esci Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded
1/72 Keilcraft Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded
1/72 Omega Sopwith F1/3 Comic Camel Night Fighter, Resin
1/72 Revell Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded
1/72 Scaleplanes Sopwith Comic Camel Night Fighter, Vacuform
1/72 Toko Sopwith Comic Camel Night Fighter, Injection Moulded

1/48 Aurora Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded
1/48 Blue Max Camel F.1, Injection Moulded
1/48 Blue Max Camel 2F.1, Injection Moulded
1/48 Blue Max Camel F.1, Injection Moulded
1/48 Blue Max Camel 2F.1, Injection Moulded
1/48 Hi-Tech Sopwith Camel Trainer
1/48 Smer Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded
1/48 Tommy Atkins Sopwith Camel

1/32 Hobbycraft Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded

1/28 Revell Sopwith Camel, Injection Moulded

Articles

Performance Figures for the Sopwith Camel
The Ruston 1000th Camel
Pilot's perspective

Builds

Ray Boorman - 1/72 Blue Rider Sopwith Comic Camel / Airfix Sopwith Camel Conversion
David Burke - 1/28 Revell Sopwith Camel
Merrill Anderson - 1/48 Blue Max Sopwith Camel, Henry Clay of the 41st Sqdn, USAAS
Marc Flake - 1/72 Revell Sopwith Camel, Belgian, 11th Fighter Squadrons (Paper bird insignia)
Artur Golebiewski - 1/48 Blue Max Sopwith Camel, Kenneth Murray, 7 Eskadra, Polish Air Force
Volker Haeusler - Sopwith Camel.
Brian Nicklas - 1/72 Sopwith 2F.1 Camel, Stuart Culley N6812
Dale Sebring - 1/72 Sopwith Camel.
Ken Zelnick - 1/72 Academy Camel.

Museum aircraft

Imperial war Museum
Polish Aviation Museum, Krakow, Poland
Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, Rhinebeck, NY, USA