In 1917, the Sopwith Aviation Company rolled out the Camel to replace its earlier Pup, sending the single-seat biplane fighter to the Western Front where it would soon earn a fearsome reputation.Under the pilot sat a rotary engine driving twin synchronized 0.303 in Vickers guns, and nearly 90 per cent of the Camel’s weight sat in its first two metres. That made it tricky to handle at first, but in skilled hands its tight turning radius and snappy responsiveness proved devastating in the low-altitude dogfights of trench-war Europe.Over the next year the Camel claimed 1 294 enemy aircraft—more than any other Allied fighter in the Great War—and crews learned to joke that every mission would end with ‘a wooden cross, the Red Cross or a Victoria Cross’. As the air war shifted, Camels also took on ground-attack roles, with armoured trench-fighter T.F.1s and night-fighter ‘Comic’ versions, plus the ship-borne 2F.1 and a two-seat trainer.By January 1920, newer monoplanes had eclipsed it, and the last Camels left RAF service. Yet its blend of punch and agility cemented the modern fighter’s template—and earned the Camel its place as one of aviation’s enduring icons.

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Sopwith Camel