Replica Sopwith Camel Construction Process

[greatwarpilot]

Once the major wooden pieces were roughed out the process of converting the wooden mock-up into the final metal fuselage began.

The question might be asked "Why go to the trouble of designing a new metal fuselage when you have plans for a perfectly good (and original) wooden one?"

This is a debate that still goes on within our organization, as I'm sure it does elsewhere. However for a variety of reasons it was decided to go with steel on this aircraft and the results can be observed by watching this thread.

Here are a few photographs of the ailerons as works in progress.





Next is a look at our instrument panel. The cockpit is one area that we're trying to make as "authentic looking" as possible. So while we're not going with original instruments we're putting in the correct packing rings and have made up flanges to hold smaller modern instruments in the locations they originally would have been. All non original instruments will be placed in a secondary panel that we have yet to decide on a location for. Other plans for the cockpit include constructing a wicker seat, and doing a faux wood paint job on all the steel tubes in the cockpit, painting the "brackets" black so that at a glance one might not realize it’s actually steel framed from the outside.



And here is a last look at the wood before we started the process of converting it to steel.

[greatwarpilot]

Here are some views of the rear fuselage taking shape and then being mated with the forward fuselage. It also sports some of the wooden items that were constructed on the mock-up. In this way, all the places where the fabric touches the frame it will be resting on wood build as per the original (disguising the steel frame as best we can).









More fun to come!

[greatwarpilot]

So as to make efficient use of the limited space we have in our hangar we're putting together as many of the "little bits" as we can, finishing them and putting them away on a shelf until the time comes for their incorporation into the larger project.

One such example is the landing gear. Below you will see a series of photographs showing its progress from a pile of pieces into a nearly completed assembly.

[greatwarpilot]

[Colin Hulse]

I am in Windsor and would like to take a look at your project someday,
if that's possible? Are you aware of any blueprints for the Clerget 130 or 140?
I find it hard to phantom that they do not exsist.
Cheers
Colin Hulse

[greatwarpilot]

Hello Colin,

You'd be welcome to come and have a look at the Camel any time you're in the area. I don't know of any Clerget blueprints off hand, but engine drawings aren't really something we deal in since none of our birds have original engines unfortunately.

Send me a private message or an email to the msn address in my profile and we can discuss when the best time would be for a visit.

Cheers

Edward

[greatwarpilot]

This series of photographs will focus on a defining aspect of the camel... its hump! Further it’s a part of the airplane thats near and dear since its the area I've personally put the most work into.

We've finally got the gun mounts done (and a pair of real Vickers in there to get them lined up just right). In the finished airplane we're going to use a matched set of replica Vickers one of our members is building. So no need to fear that we're going to leave in the odd set you see here (in case anyone is wondering one is an American version that I believe fired 8 or 9mm, and the other is a standard british army Vickers with water jacket and handles).



If one looks at a number of original Camel pictures you can see a great variation in the gun cut outs on original Camels. Most have been cut away more than ours (which were done following the replicraft plans). When we actually tried to install and remove a pair of heavy MGs we realized why! It’s possible to get the Vickers in and out of these minimal cut outs, but only just. I can see why an armourer in the field would cut them back as is seen in so many photographs. That being said we don't expect to have to field strip our replicas very often, so we're leaving the cut outs as you see here.



This next shot shows the non standard elements of the two Vickers we were using, and the basics of our instrument panel. The replicas will have the standard padded butts, and we'll also have the correct cocking handles.



Finally here is a view of those flanges I mentioned earlier. As you can see we are using modern instruments, but mocked up to look reasonably like an original panel.

[greatwarpilot]

Here are the last few pictures we have of the Camel at the moment. They give a sense of how far along the project is at the moment, and as progress continues we'll try and post some more images.









Any comments or thoughts?

[baldeagle]

The fuselage looks like Warren truss, is that right? And how did you guys engineer the change over from the original style construction?

[greatwarpilot]

The Camel fuselage isn't really a simple 2D truss, the sides are part of a 'space frame' designed to provide strength and transfer/share loads in 3 dimensions.

The project is being led by one of our members with a degree in aerospace engineering. As I understand it he's designed the steel fuselage in AutoCAD and done the appropriate stress and load calculations in order to confirm the design will be suitable to replace the original.

An interesting aside, the designer as well as a number of the members would much rather have built it as per the original. But for some reason there was another segment of the membership that takes issue with a wooden fuselage for some reason. Something I have a hard time understanding considering all our airplanes hang from wooden wings!

In any case, we’re doing our best to satisfy both camps to some degree. Namely those who appreciate authenticity and those who want to modernize things for practicality sake. I tend to put myself in the authenticity camp and really appreciate the work of others on the forum who are purists when it comes to doing things as they were originally done.