"Good God man, your Strutter has had a Pup!"
Brig Gen William Sefton Branker's words on seeing the Pup next to a Strutter at Brooklands during its unveiling in the spring of 1916. The classic Great War Sopwith fighter has been added to my site. The Pup needs little introduction as it cemented the British manufacturer as a preferred supplier of single-seat scouts. Loved by its pilots, easy to maintain, extraordinarily nimble and fitted with a forward firing synchronised machine gun, from its combat debut in 1916 the Pup was greatly appreciated and, along with the likes of the Nieuport XI, helped tip the balance of power in favour of the Allied air forces over the Western Front. Construction wise, Sopwith designer Freddie Sigrist's little scout was simple and leant much of its DNA to the machines that succeeded it; the Triplane in RNAS service and the ubiquitous Camel, by far the most well known British Great War fighter. Initially designed for the needs of the Royal Navy, as Sopwith was a preferred supplier of aeroplanes to the Admiralty, the Pup made its name over the Front in the hands of the Royal Flying Corps, but arguably its greatest contribution to aviation was its pioneering use as a ship based warplane. From 1917 the RN instigated a policy of mounting aeroplanes aboard its larger warships for self defence; carried on small platforms aboard light cruisers and capital warships, the 'Deck Pup' was a prolific counter to airborne threats to the fleet. It's raison d'etre was as an anti-Zeppelin interceptor; the navy saw the Imperial German Airship Service's lumbering reconnaissance craft as an immediate threat and from the outbreak of war implemented a strategic campaign to counter its airships. With the advent of the flat top aircraft carrier with the conversion of the 'Large Light Cruiser' HMS Furious with flying off and landing decks, along with the Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter, the Pup pioneered deck landing experiments and was in use trialling often bizarre methods of restraint in the last year of the war and subsequently, aboard the true flat-top HMS Argus, with the aeroplanes often ending up as crumpled heaps beyond salvage aboard the carriers. An ignominious end to a great machine. Click on the image to go to the Pup's pages, where you'll find a walkaround of one of The Vintage Aviator's superb reproductions and a gallery of select machines.
