Sopwith 1½-Strutter

Official known as the Sopwith Type 97, the 1½-Strutter was a single-seat bomber introduced in 1916. It was the first aircraft to be designed from the outset with a synchronized gun, and later in its career became the first aircraft to be launched from a British warship, the HMAS Australia. The plane did well initially, but within months was dominated by newer scouts introduced by the enemy. A total of 1,513 planes were built for the RAF, and almost 4,000 were built in France. The plane was used by Belgium, France, Japan, Latvia, Romania, Russia, and the American Expeditionary Force.

The biplane burns 8.6 gallons of aviation fuel per hour at routine usage. A full load of fuel and ammo (excluding bombs) costs $16.

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

Powertrain: 97-kW HP gasoline engine with 97-kW old prop and 21-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:

Aircraft LMG/.303 Vickers [Body:F] (1,000 rounds).

4x56-lb. bombs (or equivalent) [Wings:U].

Equipment:

Wings: 4 56-lb. hardpoints.

Statistics:

Size: 25'x33'x10' Payload: 0.51 tons Lwt.: 1.17 tons

Volume: 96 Maint.: 88 hours Cost: $5,135

HT: 6. HPs: 15 Body, 135 each Wing, 3 each Wheel.

aSpeed: 102 aAccel: 2 aDecel: 42 aMR: 10.5 aSR: 1

Stall Speed: 38 mph. Take-Off Run: 206 yards. Landing Run: 144 yards.

gSpeed: 146 gAccel: 7 gDecel: 10 gMR: 0.5 gSR: 2

Ground Pressure: Very High. 1/8 Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes:

Historical wing area was 346 sf. MG load out and fuel capacity are a guess, as no historical values could be found. The design weight was decreased 7 lbs. to the historical. Design aSpeed was 103 mph (the design aSpeed was only 86 mph without the Good Streamlining). Performance calculations were based on historical values for wing area and loaded weight. The Body MG is synchronized, lowering RoF by 10% (see p. W:MP8).

Variants:

The Sopwith Two-Seater was a 1½-Strutter variant used in the fighter role.

From the Aerodrome for GURPS