The Fokker Dr.1 triplane is without doubt one of the most well-known fighter types of the First World War. However, it was preceded on the front much earlier by a similar British type; the Sopwith Triplane. Although it was built, just like the Fokker Dr.1, in relatively low numbers, it never got as famous as the Dreidecker flown by the German ace Manfred von Richthofen. In fact this was quite undeserved; the Sopwith Triplane entered the front much earlier than the Fokker Dr.1 and it was flown very successfully by a number of British aces before it was replaced by the much more known Sopwith Camel. Most famous Triplane ace was Raymond Collishaw, who scored no less than 34 of his total of 60 aerial victories on the Sopwith Triplane!

RISE AND FALL OF THE SOPWITH AIRCRAFT COMPANY LTD. AT KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES

T.O.M. Sopwith (Thomas) was born in Kensington, London on 18 January 1888. His father was a civil engineer who died when Thomas Sopwith still was a child. He followed a technical education and soon became very interested in aviation. He taught himself to fly, making his first solo flight on 22 October 1910. Although his first flight was very short and ended in a crash, he did not give up and he soon gained his flying certificate. On 18 December 1910, Sopwith won a £4000 prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British-built aeroplane, flying 169 miles (272 km) in 3 hours 40 minutes. He used the winnings to set up the Sopwith School of Flying at Brooklands. In 1912 he set up, together with Fred Sirgist, a company for the design and construction of aircraft as the Sopwith Aviation Company Ltd..

The new company had a difficult start, but with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 business was soon booming thanks to a number of highly successful military aircraft. Best known are the 1½-Strutter, the Pup, Triplane and last but not least the Camel. When the war ended, things changed dramatically with an enormous decline in aircraft needed. The company had earned enough money to survive this period, but shortly after the war the government charged punitive and excessive so-called anti-profiteering taxes. The company was forced to dissolve itself in 1920. However, a fresh restart was made with new capital.

Sopwith; a detailed type-by type review

Although the title of this book suggests it only gives a description of the Triplane fighter, details are given here on all important Sopwith aircraft since very little has been published on this recently. Before Sopwith started to manufacture its own types the company had modified a Wright biplane (manufactured by the British Howard Wright) and fitted it with a 50 hp Gnome engine. Later, this was even completely rebuilt fitted with a 70 hp Gnome engine from a Blériot. Also a hybrid biplane with a closed fuselage based on the earlier Wright was built.

The first completely new design from the company was the threeseat tractor biplane of 1913 with a 80 hp Gnome engine. It featured three large celluloid windows for the two passengers sitting in front of the pilot. Three were built. Three more modified examples on floats were built, powered by a 100 hp Anzani engine.

Second type built in 1913 was a small two-seat biplane flying boat known as the Bat Boat. The first one was powered by a 6-cylinder 90 hp Austro-Daimler engine. It was soon wrecked, but another two were supplied to the British Admiralty; later to be followed by an improved amphibian version known as Bat Boat II with a 200 hp engine.

The next design was the Tabloid, a single seat high-speed biplane that became world famous when it gained, as version on floats, the 1st place at the Schneider Trophy contest of 1914 at Monaco. Pilot on this occasion was Howard Pixton who convincingly won with his 100 hp Gnome powered racer. More Tabloids were constructed as a landplane with a wheel undercarriage. The Tabloid was the first Sopwith airplane built in substantial numbers with a total of 137 manufactured in various sub types. The Tabloid was further developed into the military types Pup (originally known as ‘Scout’) and the Baby seaplane.

In this chapter, we extend perhaps the most famous law in mechanics, Newton’s Second Law, to study objects and systems of objects executing rotational motion. Emphasis is placed on developing an intuition for the effects of torques on the rotational dynamics of systems by comparing and contrasting them to the effects that forces have on the linear motion of such systems.

In this chapter, we begin by defining the concept of the angular momentum for a point mass, systems of discrete masses, and continuous rigid bodies. We then use the most general form of Newton’s Second Law for rotational motion to study the impulse due to a torque, the angular momentum impulse theorem, and finally the conservation of angular momentum. To develop these theorems, we draw from our understanding of the analogous theorems in linear motion.

Just as force is a ubiquitous concept in linear mechanics, torque is ubiquitous in rotational mechanics. We, therefore, begin this chapter with the definition and detailed description of torque, which we then use to study static equilibrium. Our discussion includes descriptions of common forces and their points of application, as well as subtleties associated with studying systems of objects in static equilibrium. The chapter ends with some useful theorems commonly found in the literature.

The most general motion of a rigid body can be described by the combination of the translational motion of its center of mass and the rotational motion of all points of the body about an axis through the center of mass. In this chapter, we apply kinematics, dynamics, and conservation laws to investigate rolling motion, which is a special case of this most general motion. This chapter represents the culmination of all the topics we cover in the first six chapters of this book.

In this chapter, we begin by examining the work due to a torque. We then define the concept of the rotational kinetic energy for a point mass, systems of discrete masses, and continuous rigid bodies. We develop the angular work-kinetic energy theorem and use it to study the conservation of energy and the conservation of mechanical energy in systems involving rotational motion. To develop these theorems, we draw from our understanding of the analogous theorems in linear motion.

We begin our study of rotational motion with the definitions and detailed examination of the fundamental quantities which we will use throughout this book. We then proceed with a description of kinematics in rotational motion by drawing analogies from our knowledge of one-dimensional kinematics in linear motion.

The journey through rotational motion is not quite done. In fact, we are just beginning. This chapter introduces a few topics which would be covered in an intermediate-level mechanics course. The topics include more advanced physical phenomena, such as gyroscopic precession, and the mathematical formalism of parameterizing rotations using matrices.

The concept of mass in linear motion was quite simple. However, the rotational analog, the moment of inertia, is comparatively complicated. In this chapter, we present a thorough introduction to the moment of inertia, and we develop the tools needed to compute this quantity for point masses, systems of discrete masses, and continuous rigid bodies about different axes of rotation. The chapter ends with some useful theorems that allow us to extend the application of these fundamental tools.

In March 1787, Benjamin Rush sat in Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia home discussing the nature of public punishments. The two Benjamins were not alone. Rush spoke to the newly formed Society for Promoting Political Inquiries of which he—as well as Franklin—was a founding member. The organization itself was dedicated not to the development of partisan politics, but to the study of politics as a science. Its members believed government could be understood, dismantled, and rebuilt with greater clarity. Just as the laws of motion or the nature of electricity yielded to inquiry, so too, they hoped, would the laws of human society and workings of the human mind. While a short walk away colleagues worked to construct the United States Constitution, these Philadelphians mused upon the basic framework of good governance at all levels. The group met most months between February 1787 and May 1789 at Franklin's home, with different members presenting each time. While short-lived, the society and its members represented the strong “improving” and “enlightened” impulse in post-Revolutionary American life and the extent to which “scientific” was an idealized adjective. After the war for independence, and in the midst of the development of a new constitution, members looked to science and scientific methods to guide them in developing national institutions and understanding political trends. Benjamin Rush took those lessons to heart in a variety of projects pre- and postdating his lecture in Franklin's home.

The Society counted among its members the leaders of Philadelphia's social, political, and scientific elite. Thomas Paine drafted their governing documents; local politicians George Clymer and William Bingham served as the first vice presidents. Franklin, at 81 the elder statesman of Philadelphia's intellectual society, acted as president. As a physician, Rush was joined by other men of science, including astronomer and naturalist David Rittenhouse and his medical colleague Adam Kuhn.1 Rush's oration on public punishments was one of the most influential and widely read documents to come out of the group and demonstrates his use of medical knowledge to craft social policy. As