Sopwith Gordon Bennett Racer (oz9813)

About this Plan

Sopwith Gordon Bennett Racer. Radio control scale model biplane racer for electric power with geared motor.

Quote: "When Harry Hawker got back from his Australian adventure in early 1914 he had three months of flying experience in the Tabloid followed by a long sea voyage back to England. Impatient to put his experience to good use, he went straight to the works and persuaded Tom Sopwith to make 2 racers for the Gordon Bennett trophy to be held later that year in America.

This one-off aircraft was built at Harry Hawker’s request, to win the 1914 Gordon Bennett Trophy and it was supposedly based on the Tabloid that Hawker had taken to Australia at the end of the previous year. However, it was in effect a completely new type that resembled the design of the SE2 and SE4 from the Royal Aircraft Factory, rather than anything from the Sopwith Works at Kingston. A second racer based much more closely on the production Tabloid was also built, but the declaration of war prevented either being used for the competition. In late 1914 they were impressed by the Admiralty for service with the RNAS and Hawker delivered the Gordon Bennett machine, now Serial 1215, to Hendon, with the conventional racer as Serial 1214. Together with 1213 (a Tabloid made for an Italian firm, but taken by the RNAS) they formed the “Fast Flight”.

The sources for the drawing are photographic side and frontal views published in Sopwith, the Man and His Aircraft” in 1970. The RAeS also holds a photograph in its archive and “Great Sopwith Cookup” website has details of a scratch-built plastic model and a rather dated 3-view.

It seems likely that the wings are of production Tabloid plan form, but the struts (which are oval-section steel) are spaced much more closely together than normal and there is only a very small amount of stagger. The wings are further apart than the Tabloid but dihedral is evident and lateral control is by warping: the warp pulley can be seen above the wing in the side view. Most unusually, there is an obvious fairing between the fuselage and the top of the lower wing. In the front view it appears that the lower centre section leading edge curves up to meet the fuselage, but this may be a trick of the light. The trailing edge is definitely not a straight line, but it is just possible that there is a cut-out similar to the upper centre section, rather than a curved edge. There is an obvious gap between the end ribs on the centre sections and the outer wings, where they are joined together.

If the wing is ordinary, the Fuselage is utterly extraordinary. Nothing like it comes out of the Works until the Snipe and the Dragon, 4 years later, and they are ugly in comparison. There is a large radial cowl, tapering down to a slim and elegant tail and rudder. The cowl must be the same diameter as the Tabloid’s, because the same 75 hp le Rhone engine is used, but the side taper is straight from cowl to fin..."

Note: This plan is one of a series posted on RCGroups by the designer, Mike Roach (SopwithMike) himself. See https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3022867-Mike-roach-free-plans I checked with Mike and asked if he was happy for us to host copies of these plans, here on Outerzone: He said: "Hi Steve, I would be very happy for any of the plans I put up on the free thread to be put on the Outerzone site. I'm a great admirer of the site, have visited it often for inspiration and it's one of the reasons I have offered my own plans free to copy. I'm hoping Steve85 will be offering short kits at some stage. If anyone has comments on any of the plans, I'd be very happy to amend drawing for future builders. All the plans are hand drawn, so there will be the odd error and ommision! Best wishes, Mike"

Note: This version of the plan scan has been cleaned and re-aligned. See supplement raw scan in case any crucial areas got overly cleaned.

Supplementary file notes

Article.
Article_2 (type history and 3 view, by the designer).
Raw scan.

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