Sopwith Production

[UK_Widowmaker]

Just found this pretty cool pic of the Sopwith production line.

As you may notice on the OFF skins, the Sopwith Factory was in Kingston upon Thames..although that is only partly true.

 

It was situated on the outskirts of Kingston, in a place called 'Ham'.... I know this, because I used to live in a House in Ham, and our Back Yard bordered the Factory (it was in the 1970's, and was The Hawker Siddeley factory at that time)...if you were up early enough in the morning, you might catch a glimpse of a Brand spanking New Harrier, it's wings packed alongside it..on a huge flatbed lorry..with Police Outriders...with it's shape showing through the tight fitting silver grey Tarpaulin....very exciting for a 10 yr old lad as I was at the time

 

It then became BAC and later BAE...closing down, and becoming the YMCA Hawker Centre in 2001

 

I remember looking at the factory out of my bedroom window, thinking of all the amazing aircraft that were built there...The Camel, the Hurricane..THE SNIPE!.....happy days

(unless I am mistaken..I believe those are in fact Snipe's in the picture?)

Edited March 11, 2010 by UK_Widowmaker

[Slartibartfast]

I bet you dream in Snipes Widow old chap the way you go on about them...

[catch]

A great but ultimately sad pic UKWM ! Dated Dec 1918. A graveyard ... such a waste

[Von Paulus]

Great picture UK.

Thanks.

[Duce Lewis]

Widow, that Hanger makes an interesting picture

I bet it was also a target interesting to the Luftwaffe

Do you know of any history of bomb damage in the area?

[UK_Widowmaker]

Hi Duce,

 

Yes, it was hammered relentlessly by the Luftwaffe in WW2...but in traditional German manner...they consistently missed it!

 

The house I lived in (and indeed most of the houses in that area) were rebuilt after the war (many were destroyed)...but my friend Tim lived in one that was original..it even had it's old Anderson Shelter in the garden (where we used to hang out, smoking, drinking..and entertaining young ladies in our misspent youth!)

 

The remains of a doodlebug also sat (and possibly still does) in the woods nearby...and a large crater caused by the demise of an HE-111 or DO-17 (no-one seems to know which)...created the pond which I learned to fish in!...So thanks for that Mr Hitler!

Edited March 12, 2010 by UK_Widowmaker

[Duce Lewis]

Hi Duce,

 

Yes, it was hammered relentlessly by the Luftwaffe in WW2...but in traditional German manner...they consistently missed it!

 

The house I lived in (and indeed most of the houses in that area) were rebuilt after the war (many were destroyed)...but my friend Tim lived in one that was original..it even had it's old Anderson Shelter in the garden (where we used to hang out, smoking, drinking..and entertaining young ladies in our misspent youth!)

 

The remains of a doodlebug also sat (and possibly still does) in the woods nearby...and a large crater caused by the demise of an HE-111 or DO-17 (no-one seems to know which)...created the pond which I learned to fish in!...So thanks for that Mr Hitler!

Sounds like a fun childhood!

[carrick58]

Good info Thanks

[UK_Widowmaker]

I was anxious to see how Widowmaker was going to add the word SNIPE in there, as you can see, I was not disappointed

 

Hahaha...thank you Unc

[+Olham]

I must admire your ways to attract attention, only to bring in the SNIPE another way, Widow!

 

The good old days of youth, eyh? Have you seen the film "Hope and Glory" by John Boorman?

That told me a lot about how life was for the civilians down below the Battle of Britain.

 

A graveyard of fine aeroplanes indeed, Catch - what a waste! Imagine, they would still exist there,

in a forgotten hangar...

[UK_Widowmaker]

Sounds like a fun childhood!

 

If I use a very selective memory, it can almost appear that way...however, the truth (as it is with many people) isn't quite as pretty

[+Hasse Wind]

OBD, give this man a Snipe.

 

A very nice pic.

[UK_Widowmaker]

OBD, give this man a Snipe.

 

A very nice pic.

 

You heard the Man Devs!...(you'll never hear the last of it if you don't)...and neither will these hapless Bastards on the forum either!

[+Olham]

One day they'll give up under all your nagging, Widow, and do that plane and the skins for it -

only to see you going down in flames in a Snipe, instead of a Camel or an S.E.5a, under my "Spandaus".

Mmuahahahahaaaaa!!!!

[UK_Widowmaker]

Ah but Olham...the Snipe's in the Picture are no longer needed...because the war was over....the war was over, because YOU lot lost!

[Flyby PC]

I was looking at the picture wondering where everybody was.

 

It seemed rather bold to be taking photographs of an aircraft production line while everybody was having a tea break. Good way to get yourself shot as a spy I reckoned.

 

No mystery when you see the date...

[+Olham]

UncleAl: Actually there's a better argument for the Parasol, atleast it would provide a target for the EIII's

 

That's true; the E III has no "fitting opponent" in it's good times, before the Nieuport 11 came.

Which is so much better, that hardly anyone picks an E III campaign.

[ConradB]

But if the Devs give this man a Snipe, he will be as hermit in a cave, and we will be without his most enjoyable and humorous posts!

[Tonyo - legion]

I remember the factory that your speaking of quite well, I used to repair a computer system in there once upon a time, & to think that the factories been knocked down to make a housing estate makes my heart bleed, - so called progress i suppose???

 

TonyO.

 

 

[Duce Lewis]

I think there's a lot of us who'd enjoy the Snipe

I'm sure there are many (like me) who won't touch the Camel because of it's unorthodox flying characteristics

Snipe is more stable and would open this type crate to more simmers

Would be nice to have it's excellent high altitude performance too

[Flyby PC]

Going off on a tangent, what is it with the names for these aircraft?

 

A snipe is a harmless little wading bird, not some blood and guts air warrior like a Goshawk or Sparrowhawk or something.

 

A camel? Ok, maybe the fuselage has a bit of a hump, but what's particularly warlike about a flying into battle on a camel? You're going to burp and smell on the enemy? (No offense to any Bedouin pilots who happen to be watching).

 

Pup? Aw, give it a biscuit.

 

Dolphin? Go get 'em Flipper.

 

Tabloid? ...... I give up.

 

Were these names supposed to appear harmless in their packing crate as in calling landships 'tanks'?

 

Sad but true, even later, they very nearly called the Spitfire the 'Shrew'. Somehow "Achtung Shrew!" doesn't get the blood pumping.

 

Was there a policy for naming these aircraft?

 

I'm not overly impressed with Mosquito, but then I do know the Scottish Midge, and you do from time to time get some nasty twin engined little f*!"ers.

[Check Six]

It was situated on the outskirts of Kingston, in a place called 'Ham'.... I know this, because I used to live in a House in Ham, and our Back Yard bordered the Factory

 

 

Umm...would that make you a hamster??

 

 

 

Ahem. Sorry about that.

 

I don't know about the other aircraft, but I know the pup was so nicknamed when the new aircraft was seen parked next to a 1 1/2 strutter.

 

 

"As for the name "Pup", your memory is correct. The name is attributed to Brigadier General W. Sefton Brancker, stemming from an incident when then Colonel Brancker had recently taken up his post as Director of Air Organization. Shortly after the first very successful flight of the new Sopwith Scout, Col Branker drove down to Brooklands from the War Office to inspect the new machine. He found the scout parked alongside a considerably larger Strutter, and exclaimed: "Good God! Your 1½ Strutter has had a pup." And so it remained, despite official reluctance to recognize what many in high places deemed an undignified, flippant, and slangy name for a fighting machine" From The Aerodrome Forum

 

I think we all know that the Camel was so named as the fairing covering the machine guns gave the machine the apperance of having a hump. As for the Snipe, Tabloid etc, mostly these were names thrown about usually initially by the designers themselves instead of calling their new aircraft design the "War Department Order 002341 Scout" or some such ridiculous name. I dare say the Snipe was nicknamed by a bird watcher in the Sopwith Factory design office.

 

Much more good info on the Pup and Tripe from that thread

 

http://www.theaerodr...lane-pup-2.html

[Creaghorn]

welcome back, checksix. haven't been around for a while

[UK_Widowmaker]

Hahaha...Yes FlyPC..I agree...pretty naff names!

 

They got a bit better in WW2 though...Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest and Whirlwind sound quite fitting, and a bit more scary!

 

Even at the start of the Jet Age... Meteor, Vampire...Folland Knat... FOLLAND KNAT?....a big step backwards!!

 

But then Hunter, Lightning, Jaguar and Tornado all sound pretty cool too...but now we are back to Typhoon....So, maybe...just maybe..the Next Eurofighter will go back even further...and be called a Eurofighter Snipe? :lol:

[+RAF_Louvert]

.

 

Just read this thread. Great pic WM, and fun tales of your childhood.

 

And let me add the following, everyone. I think it's high time we stopped picking on poor old Widowmaker about his Snipe. I mean, to keep sniping at his love for the odd craft is just cruel. It's as if we all go off on a a snipe hunt everytime he brings it up, and there's no end to the sniper tactics we engage in against him when he even broaches the subject. It's like a bunch of Wesley Snipes action characters all homing in on the same target. Why, it's nigh pernicious it is. To snipe snipe about snipe and snipe is nothing more than snipe snipe snipe and snipe, to be perfectly snipe about snipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.