Saturday, June 10, 2017

Carl Swanson's WWI Sopwith Camel Pup-- Part 2: German Fighter Pilots Tried To Avoid the Pups

Evidently, this Carl Swanson was very good at building World War I planes.

"A Pup could turn twice to an Albatros' once" and that was very important in a dogfight.  German flyers tried to avoid fighting a Pup.

The Museum of Flight's Sopwith Camel Pup was built by Carl Swanson of Darien, Wisconsin, and is considered a masterpiece of replication-- right down to the LePhone 9D, 80 horsepower rotary engine and .303 inch Vickers machine gun.

If I'm ever in the Seattle Area Again, I'll Have to Visit This Museum.  --DaCoot

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I was taking flight lessons at Sycamore airport in the early sixties and a member of the local EAA chapter. Had the good fortune to visit Carl’s shop to see one of his WW1 projects, also got to see him run the rotary engine. He certainly was a talented precise builder, as exact as you would ever find.