Sopwith Camel replica, Airdrome Aeroplanes Sopwith Camel experimental lightsport aircraft, Light Sport Aircraft Pilot News newsmagazine.

 


Light Sport Aircraft Pilot is a directory of aircraft that generally fit into what are described as ultralight aircraft, advanced ultralight aircraft, light sport aircraft, experimental light sport aircraft, experimental aircraft, amateur built aircraft, ELSA or homebuilt aircraft in the United States and Canada. These include weight shift aircraft, more commonly known as trikes, powered parachutes, and powered para-gliders.

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Airdrome Aeroplanes Sopwith Camel, experimental lightsport, amateur built aircraft.

When you look at the ultralight/experimental amateur built aircraft category you will find that many of the designs have developed a "niche" market.

That is the designer has found a group of aviators that are interested in his design or style of aircraft. Robert Baslee started designing for his "niche" market back in the mid 90's and has not look back since.

His "niche" is the builder/pilot who is looking for WWI replica aircraft. To date Robert has produced over 20 designs. This year at Airventure 2010 he introduced his latest design a full scale Sopwith Camel.

The original
Sopwith Camel was a British World War I single-seat biplane built in 1917. It had a short-coupled fuselage, was powered by a rotary engine and was equipped with twin synchronized machine guns.

 
The Airdrome Aeroplanes full scale Sopwith Camel is powered by a 150 HP Rotec Radial engine. The fuselage is a 4130 welded steel fuselage, which is a departure from Airdromes usual fuselage construction technique which uses rivet together aluminum construction. The rest of the plane does uses aluminum rivet together construction. Robert became involved in the project when a customer, who had wanted to build a Camel for years approached him at a show he was attending in Texas.

The customer had been gathering parts for years, and had an original instrument panel, ignition switches and data tag from a Camel! He asked Robert "can we build a plane around these?"

Robert started the project by first gathering as many pictures and as much information as he could find about the original Sopwith Camel. From this he designed the plane, did the structural analysis work, produced a set of plans, and then began production of the plane. Robert indicates with the "customer authenticity" requirement of the build the plane took about 500 hours to complete, with the only major difference being the location of the fuel tank, which has been moved forward to better fit into the CG of the plane.

The plane was custom built over a period of about six months. The first flights on the plane proved to be very impressive with performance figures very close to the original aircraft, stall speed is below 40 mph, cruise comes in at 80 mph and climb is a conservative 1000 feet per minute. Robert also indicates that a pilot can release the stick at 45 mph and start adding power on up to 90 mph with no trim change!

The customer has a number of warbirds and plans on flying his latest addition to local airshows and flyins.

For more information:
Airdrome Aeroplanes
929 NW Road 1571
Holden MO 64040
816-230-8585
www.airdromeaeroplanes.com
rbaslee@yahoo.com

 

Sopwith Camel replica, Airdrome Aeroplanes Sopwith Camel experimental lightsport aircraft, Light Sport Aircraft Pilot News newsmagazine.
Airdrome Aeroplanes Sopwith Camel experimental amateur built lightsport aircraft

 
Airdrome Aeroplanes Sopwith Camel experimental amateur built lightsport aircraft - 1 Airdrome Aeroplanes Sopwith Camel experimental amateur built lightsport aircraft - 2 Airdrome Aeroplanes Sopwith Camel experimental amateur built lightsport aircraft - 3
 

 

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