Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe

Designed as a replacement for the Sopwith Camel, the Snipe went through several revisions and faced stiff competition from the Bobolink and Nieuport B.N.1 before being accepted by the British Air Ministry. The plane began arriving at the front in the summer of 1918, and the 100 planes delivered before war's end demonstrated the fine capabilities of the aircraft. The plane continued in British service until 1926, with a total of 497 examples being built when production ended in 1919.

The Snipe was one of the first planes to include heat and oxygen for the pilot for high altitude flying. The plane has a historical endurance of 3 hours; it burns 8.6 gallons of aviation fuel per hour at routine usage. A full load of fuel, ammo, and bombs costs $227.70.

Subassemblies: Recon Fighter chassis +2; Recon Fighter wings with Biplane option +2; 2 fixed wheels +0.

Powertrain: 172-kW HP gasoline engine with 172-kW old prop and 38½-gallon standard fuel tank [Body].

Occ.: 1 XCS Body

Cargo: 4.5 Body

Armor F RL B T U

Body: 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C

Wings: 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C

Wheels: 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3

Weaponry:

2xAircraft LMG/.303 Vickers [Body:F] (1,000 rounds each).*

4x25-lb. bombs [Wings:U].

*Linked.

Equipment:

Body: Limited life support (0.25 man-days). Wings: 4 25-lb. hardpoints.

Statistics:

Size: 20'x30'x9' Payload: 0.35 tons Lwt.: 1.01 tons

Volume: 96 Maint.: 116 hours Cost: $2,982

HT: 7. HPs: 15 Body, 50 each Wing, 3 each Wheel.

aSpeed: 121 aAccel: 4 aDecel: 18 aMR: 4.5 aSR: 1

Stall Speed: 38 mph. Take-Off Run: 144 yards. Landing Run: 144 yards.

gSpeed: 209 gAccel: 10 gDecel: 10 gMR: 0.5 gSR: 2

Ground Pressure: High. 1/6 Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes:

Historical wing area was 270 sf. MG load out is a guess. The design purchases a 45-gallon fuel tank; the historical capacity is shown. The design weight was decreased 2% to the historical. Design aSpeed was 125 mph. Performance calculations were based on historical values for wing area and loaded weight. The Body MGs are synchronized, lowering RoF by 10% (see p. W:MP8). Using the calculated gSpeed at 1/6 Off-Road speed (35 mph) gSpeed is still 92% of stall speed, so the plane could therefore potentially get airborne in a bumpy field, at the GM's discretion.

Variants:

The TF.2 Salamander (1918) was a ground attack version featuring the addition of 650 lbs. of plate armor on the lower fuselage to protect against enemy ground fire. Fuel tankage was reduced to 29 gallons. 82 built; none were used after the war.

The Dragon (1918) was a Snipe equipped with an unreliable 268-kW Dragonfly IA engine. It had a top speed of 150 mph. 76 were built, but none survived due to engine problems.

From the Aerodrome for GURPS

© 2008 by Jim Antonicic