Sopwith Dragon

1919

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  FIGHTERVirtual Aircraft Museum / United Kingdom / Sopwith  

Sopwith Dragon

The sixth and last prototype of the Snipe was fitted with the 320hp A.B.C. Dragonfly nine-cylinder radial engine as the Snipe Mk II. Despite the shortcomings of this engine, it endowed the Snipe with an outstanding performance when it could be persuaded to function efficiently, and, with the Dragonfly's faults still to be recognised as incurable, 30 Snipes were ordered with the A.B.C. engine on 3 May 1918. Assigned the name Dragon, these were delivered in June and July 1919, the production prototype having appeared in the previous January. The Dragonfly-engined Snipes were produced in parallel with aircraft built from the ground up as Dragons, these having horn-balanced upper ailerons and the 360hp Dragonfly la engine, armament comprising the standard pair of synchronised 7.7mm guns. About 200 of a 300-aircraft contract were completed and efforts to cure the engine's troubles continued until the autumn of 1921, the Dragon, officially adopted at that time as a standard RAF single-seat fighter, never being issued to a squadron and being officially declared obsolete in April 1923.

3-View 
Sopwith DragonA three-view drawing (1278 x 956)

Specification 
 WEIGHTS
  Take-off weight967 kg2132 lb
 DIMENSIONS
  Wingspan9.47 m31 ft 1 in
  Length6.63 m22 ft 9 in
  Height2.90 m10 ft 6 in
  Wing area25.18 m2271.04 sq ft
 PERFORMANCE
  Max. speed241 km/h150 mph

Comments
Anonymous, 31.03.2020 10:18

It was the fastest plane of WWI, but an unreliable engine sank it

reply

grady stoodt, e-mail, 07.05.2010 22:58

this WW1 plane is really cool, but it does not have a very fast high speed.

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