Sopwith 7F.3 Sniplane

[VickersVandal]

Both the allies and the Germans were loath to let go of the triplane concept. Plenty of tri-deckers were still in development even in 1918.

Sopwith, possibly thinking back to the glory days of the triplane and Collishaw's hun-getting Black Flight, developed a venetian blind from the Snipe. Using the heavy struts trialled with the Taper Wing Camel, a second set of lower wings were mounted above the first. Given the broad chord of the wings, the struts employed a wide I section at each end to prevent wing flex.

The resulting aircraft performed satisfactorily but had no real advantage over the standard Snipe and had poor visibility angled forward due to the wide central struts. The project was abandoned. No photos exist of the only prototype. Following on from this, Sopwith built the (radial) Dragonfly-engined Snark triplane but that didn't make it past prototype stage either.
















This build was qctually a bit of a wind-up. The model club has an annual wood, wire and canvas comp and I wanted to see how quickly this would be picked up as bogus. I even wrote a short spiel similar to the above, to display with it :mrgreen: 

The kit behaved as well as could be expected given it's a short run. Engine and a few other bits were Roden spares. Struts and undercarriage scratchbuilt.I now have a spare Pegasus Snipe with no lower wings so I have nefarious plans forthat for next year  :ha: ;-)  :razz:

[Wardukw]

Glad to see your back at Vandal mate 👍
Love it bud 😄
My pile of WW1 fighters got much much larger thanks to a mate ..got a heap on 72nd and a few 48th jobbies...all are built and I'm gonna attack the 48th ones 

[VickersVandal]

Glad to see your back at Vandal mate 👍
Love it bud 😄
My pile of WW1 fighters got much much larger thanks to a mate ..got a heap on 72nd and a few 48th jobbies...all are built and I'm gonna attack the 48th ones 

Good job, that man! Got any pics?

[Wardukw]

Glad to see your back at Vandal mate 👍
Love it bud 😄
My pile of WW1 fighters got much much larger thanks to a mate ..got a heap on 72nd and a few 48th jobbies...all are built and I'm gonna attack the 48th ones 

Good job, that man! Got any pics?

Mate theres probably 20+ of em so I'll try and group shot em ..the 48th ones are a Fokker triplane..Albatros D7 I think and Bulldog I think
..as you can tell I know a ton about WW1 aircraft   

[NARSES2]

I like that   

Struts are certainly more practical from a "ham fisted modellers" (moi  ) point of view 

This build was qctually a bit of a wind-up. The model club has an annual wood, wire and canvas comp and I wanted to see how quickly this would be picked up as bogus. I even wrote a short spiel similar to the above, to display with it :mrgreen: 

So ? How long did it take to get "sussed" ?

[Vulcan7]

Great looking build           

[zenrat]

    

[Dizzyfugu]

 Nice! 

[stevehed]

Lovely job. Now if it had been brought out before the Snipe?

[VickersVandal]

So ? How long did it take to get "sussed" ?

I don't know if it actually was. The bloke who runs the comp does have a tendency to count rivets so I was expecting some fireworks but nothing was said. Bit of a let-down... 

[NARSES2]

So ? How long did it take to get "sussed" ?

I don't know if it actually was. The bloke who runs the comp does have a tendency to count rivets so I was expecting some fireworks but nothing was said. Bit of a let-down...