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Biplanes and monoplanes came driving through the air from Hendon, and airmen of world-wide fame, such as Sopwith, Hamel, Verrier, and Hucks, had gathered together as disciples of the great life-saving missionary. Stern critics these! Men who would ruthlessly expose any "faked" performance if need were! And where is the little airman while all this crowd is gathering? Is he very excited?
Sopwith was looking out for a pilot, and he engaged Hawker, whom he had seen during some good flying at Brooklands. In a month or two he was engaged in record breaking, and in June, 1913, he tried to set up a new British height record. In his first attempt he rose to 11,300 feet; but as the carburettor of the engine froze, and as the pilot himself was in grave danger of frost-bite, he descended.
Strange paralysis and constriction marvellous illumination. Serene over it all rides the great full brow, and sometimes asleep or in the quiet spaces of the night you might fancy that on a pillow of stone he lay triumphant. Sopwith, meanwhile, advancing with a curious trip from the fire-place, cut the chocolate cake into segments.
Sopwith, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, a civil and mining engineer. He was distinguished for scientific knowledge, and had been in London to give information to a parliamentary committee. He travelled faster than we did, and when we arrived at Newcastle he was waiting to take us to his house, where we were hospitably received by Mrs. Sopwith.
While the Military Wing, or Royal Flying Corps, progressed further as an organized fighting force, the Royal Naval Air Service, amongst the 100 odd aeroplanes and seaplanes on charge which were mainly of the Short, Sopwith, Avro, Farman and Wright types, possessed in 1914 the more powerful engines and a number of aeroplanes fitted with wireless and machine guns, while their bomb-dropping arrangements were also in a more advanced stage of development.
The two-seater tractor biplane produced by Sopwith and piloted by H. G. Hawker, showed that it was possible to produce a biplane with at least equal speed to the best monoplanes, whilst having the advantage of greater strength and lower landing speeds.
Very low flying for attack was, however, being rapidly developed, and would have proved of great effect in 1919. The aeroplane used for this purpose was the single-seater fighter, and the Sopwith "Salamander," with two guns, a speed of 125 miles an hour, and 650 lb. of armoured plates, was about to make its appearance at the Armistice.
Apart from the appearance of 'R.E.1, perhaps the most notable development towards the end of 1913 was the appearance of the Sopwith 'Tabloid 'tractor biplane.
He took them because they were new and there was nothing else new; but they are no use for war. Two B.E.2C.s with 70 Renaults: these are absolutely useless as they won't take a passenger. One Broguet 200 H.P. Canton engine; won't fly. Two Sopwith Scouts: 80 Gnome engines; very old and can't be used owing to weakness of engine mounting.
Hawker left Britain for Australia to give demonstrations in the Sopwith machine to the Government of his native country. A fine list of records has for long stood to the credit of the Sopwith biplane. Many of the Sopwith machines used in the European War were built specially to withstand rough climate and heavy winds, and thus they were able to work in almost every kind of weather.