Real machine gun to go in replica Sopwith Camel fighter plane

Montrose: Successful aircraft could be dangerous for inexperienced pilots

Work has started at Montrose Air Station to revive a replica of the highest scoring fighter aircraft of the First World War.

The heritage centre’s Sopwith Camel replica has started to show signs of deterioration and has been moved to the new restoration workshop where it has been stripped back to its frame.

The team intend to restore the aircraft to as near its original specification as possible, including building a new set of wings, a real rotary engine and real machine guns.

It is hoped the restoration can be completed in time for the centenary of the founding of the Royal Air Force in April next year.

Curator Dan Paton said: “Very few genuine Sopwith Camels have survived.

“A replica of the aircraft is a very appropriate exhibit for the heritage centre, which is the only museum in Scotland where visitors can see what a First World War aircraft looked like.

“Our replica, made by RAF apprentices at St Athan in 1962, looked a bit tired and shabby next to our recently completed BE2 so the decision was complete restoration, a task that has proved more difficult than first thought, but the end result will be a replica that is not just smarter but a much more accurate representation of the real thing.

“We hope to obtain a real rotary engine and even real machine guns but we will not be attempting to fly it.”

Mr Paton said the refurbished replica Camel would become a memorial to the brave men who flew the aircraft “which, more than any other, symbolises the war above the trenches”.

“Unfortunately the same qualities that made the Camel a successful fighter made it a dangerous aircraft in the hands of inexperienced pilots. “The result was many accidents. “Sergeant Mack of the 138th Pursuit Squadron, US Army Airforce, at Montrose in 1918 wrote: ‘There is a crash every day and a funeral every week’.

“A lot of these were Camels – three crashed in the Montrose Basin and their remains must still be there.”

We hope to obtain a real rotary engine and even real machine guns but we will not be attempting to fly it

The Camel replica being stripped back in the workshop.