Peter G. Cooksley

It could be argued that the aircraft built at Thomas Sopwith's factory at Kingston-on-Thames contributed more to the Allied cause during the First World War than those of any other aircraft company. Of these, the Sopwith Camel is the best remembered. These aircraft made a great contribution to the development of the aircraft as a fighting machine at a time when the very science of flying was in its early stages - the world's first controlled flight having been made by the Wright brothers only some thirteen years before the first Sopwith Pup took to the air, The single seat Pup was to be the predecessor of a whole range of single seat fighters which were to continue as far as the limits of the rotary engine permitted.… (mere)