Sopwith Aircraft Photo Albums

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of four photo albums containing factory photographs of Sopwith Aircraft built during 1918 and 1919. There are overall views of the aircraft in various stages of construction, as well as detailed views of various components. Aircraft shown in the photographs include Sopwith Dolphin (5.F.1); Pup; Camel F.1; Snail (8.F.1); Grasshopper; Wallaby (Matthews/Kay UK-Australia Attempt); Gnu; Dove (Single-Seater and Two-Seater); Antelope; Swallow (Monoplane No.2); 1919 Schneider Cup Racer; Snipe (7.F.1); Salamander (2.T.F.1, T.F.2); Dragon and Dragon 2nd Prototype; Buffalo; Bulldog Mk.II (2.F.R.2); Rhino (2.B.2); Bomber (B.1/B.2); Hippo (3.F.2); Cobham Mk.I and Mk.II; and the Sopwith Snark. Additional images in the albums include a map of the proposed route to be taken by Harry George Hawker and John MacKenzie-Grieve during their 1919 transatlantic flight attempt in the Sopwith Atlantic and a series of photographs showing standard metal stampings for a variety of components.

Arrangement

Albums were previously numbered with a scrapbook number and a letter suffix. They are housed in that order.

Biographical / Historical

Sopwith Aviation Company was founded by Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith in 1912 and the company opened its first factory that year in Kingston upon Thames, South West London, England. A second factory followed in 1914 in Woolston, Hampshire, England. During World War I, more than 16,000 aircraft designed by Sopwith were produced by the company and sub-contractors under license agreements and towards the end of the war the company took out a lease on National Aircraft Factory No. 2 in Ham, London in order to be able to increase production of several models of fighter aircraft. After World War I, Sopwith struggled to find success in the civilian aircraft market and the company was liquidated in 1920. Thomas Sopwith would go on to form HG Hawker Engineering Company with Harry George Hawker (Sopwith Aviation Company's Chief Test Pilot), Fred Sigrist (Sopwith Aviation Company's Chief Designer), and Bill Eyre (another Sopwith Aviation Company colleague), which purchased Sopwith Aviation Company's assets and acquired rights to all the Sopwith aircraft design patents.