The more things change ...

[Bob Axsom]

I just finished reading "Sopwith Scout 7309" by Sir Gordon Taylor recommended by Peter James of Australia. It is a rare book and I searched for months before I could find a copy for less than $150 through abebooks.com. It is an autobiography written in the mid to late 1960s about his experience in this specific Sopwith Pup in WWI. It is a very interesting book but what applies here is a quote from Page 154 about the efforts of James McCudden to improve the performance of an SE 5:

That looked like good hunting to McCudden, as it did to me. He determined that the Rumplers must be overtaken on our side of the lines and destroyed.

He set out therefore to improve the performance of the SE5; to give it extra speed, and, as it happened slightly improved climb. First of all he raised the compression of the Hispano-Suiza engine, polished the ports, went through all the hotting up procedure which is today so often used to produce sports performance from a standard motor engine.

He then carefully streamlined all protruding fittings on the aeroplane, smoothing out the airflow on interplane strut attachments and other sources of drag, till he had a much cleaner aeroplane than the standard version.

Finally he put a red spinner (taken, I believe from a captured Albatros ) on the propeller boss, suggesting a round entry in front of the flat radiator of the SE. The results were dramatic...

Bob Axsom

[corbinace]

It HAD to be a red spinner, that splash of color made all the difference.

We have been trying to squeeze a little more speed out of our steeds as long as we have been mobile.

[pierre smith]

...comes to mind when you take an SE-5 and try to streamline it!! A daunting task indeed....make it go from 90 MPH to 100....whoopeee!

I know, I know, that's all they had back then but trying to put out a forest fire with a cup is very hard to do.

Best,