WOW140 Sopwith Triplane

Description

WOW140 The Sopwith Triplane was a British single seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War. It was the first military Triplane to see operational service. The Triplane joined Royal Naval Air Service squadrons in early 1917 and was an immediate success. It was nevertheless built in comparatively small numbers and was withdrawn from active service as Sopwith Camels arrived in the latter half of 1917. Surviving Triplanes continued to serve as operational trainers until the end of the war. The initial “prototype of what was to be referred to simply as the Triplane” first flew on 28 May 1916, with Sopwith test pilot Harry Hawker at the controls. Within three minutes of takeoff, Hawker startled onlookers by looping the aircraft, serial N500, three times in succession The Triplane was very agile, with effective, well-harmonised controls. When manoeuvring, however, the Triplane presented an unusual appearance. One observer noted that the aircraft looked like “a drunken flight of steps” when rolling. Our green coloured version of the Sopwith Triplane is N6307 which was flown by Lt Sharman who served with 10 Sqn RNAS under Raymond Collishaw, Sharman was unfortunately shot down and killed in this aircraft on the 22nd July. All the aircraft in this flight had the prefix ‘black’ attached to their names and Sharman claimed 6 out of his 7 victories in this Triplane. Black Flight claimed a total of 87 German aircraft in a 3 month period whilst under the command of Raymond Collishaw. Our 1/30 scale Triplane comes with free figure GW065A ‘The Orderly’ as per the photos or a substitute if this figure not available. This model is limited to 10 pieces worldwide and is priced at $399 plus approx $100 shipping. UK/EU price is £360 which also includes shipping.