In my novel The Millennium Man my protagonist, Harley Melanson, flew many aircraft but he racked up the most kills in a Sopwith Camel, the same aircraft as his hero and commander, Bill Barker.
Germans ruled the air in 1916
In 1916, the Germans controlled the skies over the trenches, and the English developed three fighters to regain control of the air war. The best and most famous of these three designs was the Sopwith Camel. Small and lightweight, the Camel represented the state-of the-art in fighter design at the time.
Big shooter but hard to handle
The Sopwith Camel shot down 1,294 enemy aircraft during World War I, more than any other Allied fighter. However, it was so difficult to fly that more men lost their lives while learning to fly it than using it in combat. The torque of the huge 110 hp Clerget 9Z engine which caused it to wrench to the left and stall in inexperienced hands. The Sopwith company rolled out the first Camel in December 1916. Although it owed much of its design to earlier Sopwith aircraft like the Tabloid, Pup and Triplane, the Camel was a revolutionary machine in two main areas.
- The plane’s twin Vickers machine guns were mounted side by side in front of the cockpit — a first for British fighters and a design feature that became standard on British fighters for nearly 20 years.
- The pilot, engine, armament and controls were all crammed into a seven foot space at the front of the airplane. This helped give the plane its phenomenal performance, but it also made the plane very tricky to fly.
In the novel, Harley flies in Barker’s raids in Italy against the Austrian-Hungarian coalition before coming to France. Major Barker’s Sopwith Camel (serial no. B6313, the aircraft in which all his victories were scored became the most successful fighter aircraft in the history of the RAF, shooting down 46 aircraft & balloons from September 1917 to September 1918 in 404 operational hours flying. It was dismantled in October 1918. Barker kept the clock as a memento, although he was asked to return it the following day.