Sopwith Camel Exhaust

[melvyn hiscock]

The pilot that flew it first, when it had the much more controllable 130 Clerget told me . ‘For the whole flight I was 150 metres behind it!’

 

The Salis collection AI is also getting a Gnome. It should be fun to see them together, and remember it was an AI that set the record for continual loops with Alfred Fronval doing 1,111

[melvyn hiscock]

On 1/3/2020 at 5:08 PM, Work In Progress said:

To be fair a 450 Stearman is more than twice the weight of a Camel, but it's indeed very possible that there's more than 160 HP, it's 970 cubic inches after all, the capacity of three 160 horsepower Lycomings put together!  I doubt one has ever been on a reliable shaft dynamometer, and really given the potential cooling issues I am not sure there's any way of doing that.

Just thinking about this, as I languish away in the NHS Hilton. Having been with the Memorial Flight since the beginning, the subject of power from these early engines has come up often. A couple of years ago I was having a long chat to Stephen Grey and he told me that if all the piston engines fighters he had flown, which includes a Bearcat, Sea Fury, Spitfires of various marks and loads more, the worst and most violent swing was the the 250hp Rolls Foyce Falcon in the Bristol F2B and he estimated that was the equivalent of 6-800hp!

[Work In Progress]

ummmm well... while I agree you can't rely on the official power numbers for these WW1 engines. swing isn't horsepower and there must surely be a degree of ebullience there. No BrisFit ever climbed the way a Gladiator does, never mind a Spitfire, and it weighs less than a ton empty. It only climbs at about 1000 fpm at sea level and they used to clock about 20 mins to 15,000 feet according to the old trials numbers. With 600 hp in something so light - probably 2500 lb in unarmed local flying trim - it would be pretty close to being able to hover, and with 800 hp it would certainly be able to climb vertically, that's only 3lb per hp. 

 

But I suppose if he was making instinctive comparisons between the feel of a Bristol Fighter at around 2500 lb, to the feel of his usual sort of mount, say a Sea Fury that even unarmed probably weighed 11,000 lb, then each Eagle horsepower would inevitable feel like about about four or five times as much as a Sabre horsepower just because of the weight difference.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Work In Progress

[melvyn hiscock]

Just quoting what Stephen told me, his comments not mine. Whilst we chat relatively frequently he doesn’t let me fly his aeroplanes!

[wombat]

Not sure how to link to tweets but see @ron_eisele for a close up of staining on a Pup

[Work In Progress]

1 hour ago, wombat said:

Not sure how to link to tweets

 

[wombat]

Yes that’s the account but the wrong post. It’s a close up image a few tweets earlier.

[Work In Progress]

Well that took a fair bit of scrolling, he puts up about 100,000,000 pics a day 

 

[wombat]

I know what you mean. Most of the images are great but they do clutter your timeline somewhat.

[Worms]

On 03/01/2020 at 10:31, wombat said:

I seem to recall reading somewhere that camel pilots could be identified by the castor oil stains on one or other shoulder of their flying gear, which suggests an outlet somewhere higher up.

 

Kuro... sounds like you have an interesting job?

I believe it was the left shoulder that got caked with oil. My father had a camel pilot's leather (cavalry) coatvthat he used for gardening...One of the shoulders was much darker and more waterproof than the other...convinced ot was the left shoulder!

[melvyn hiscock]

It would have just been general leakage, and it does get everywhere. There is no outlet higher up, why would you want residue getting in the way.