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45-770: Licenses for production of Le Rhône series engines were negotiated with companies in Great Britain, Austria, Italy, Russia, Sweden and Germany. Le Rhône-designed engines powered many of the most famous WW1 aircraft, including the Sopwith Pup , the Sopwith Camel , the Nieuport 11 "Bebe" and the Fokker Dr.1 "Triplane" . As with all rotary engines, the crankshaft of the Rhône remained stationary in operation, with

90-524: A Pup flown by Sqn Cdr Edwin Harris Dunning became the first aircraft to land aboard a moving ship, HMS  Furious . Dunning was killed on his third landing when the Pup fell over the side of the ship. The Pup began operations on the carriers in early 1917; the first aircraft were fitted with skid undercarriages in place of the standard landing gear. Landings utilised a system of deck wires to "trap"

135-549: A prior link between Thomas and Benjamin Hooker through printing machinery and they decided the skills needed to make printing machinery might be turned to the new petrol engines then to aero engines. A summary of a recorded interview of Hugh Burroughes (22 December 1883 – 3 October 1985) archived by The Imperial War Museum (catalogue number 7255, production date 1983) during the period he was Holt Thomas's general manager of Aircraft Manufacturing Company at Hendon (1914–1919) refers to

180-462: A probable loss of £250,000. BSA advised they did not intend to carry on the business but would liquidate it. It was noted by the BSA chairman that the profit of Peter Hooker Limited for the year ended 31 July 1919 had been more than £200,000. In February 1921 the works at Walthamstow and all the plant & machinery were advertised for sale. In September 1922 a town's meeting at Walthamstow asked that

225-724: A production order. Sopwith was heavily engaged in the production of the Sopwith 1½ Strutter , and produced only a small number of Pups for the RNAS. Deliveries commenced in August 1916. The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) also placed large orders for Pups. The RFC orders were undertaken by sub-contractors Standard Motor Co. and Whitehead Aircraft. Deliveries did not commence until the beginning of 1917. 1,796 Pups were built, including 96 by Sopwith, 850 by Standard Motor Co. , 820 by Whitehead Aircraft, and 30 by William Beardmore & Co. In May 1916,

270-403: A profit under the control of the receiver appointed by the bank. As the assets far exceeded the value of the amount owed to the bank they were willing for it to continue. Not enough business was found in the 1920s to support the retention of their 40-acre site at Walthamstow with its more than 400,000 square feet of workshops built little more than two decades earlier. Operations had ended when

315-619: Is a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company . It entered service with the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps in the autumn of 1916. With pleasant flying characteristics and good manoeuvrability, the aircraft proved very successful. The Pup was eventually outclassed by newer German fighters, but it was not completely replaced on

360-695: The Avro 504k often graduated to the Pup as advanced trainers. The Pup was also used in Fighting School units for instruction in combat techniques. Many training Pups were reserved by senior officers and instructors as their runabouts while a few survived in France as personal or squadron 'hacks' long after the type had been withdrawn from combat. The Pup was officially named the Sopwith Scout . The "Pup" nickname arose because pilots considered it to be

405-571: The Danish coast on 21 August 1917. The U.S. Navy also employed the Sopwith Pup with Australian pilot Edgar Percival testing the use of carrier-borne fighters. In 1926, Percival flew a Pup from a platform on turret "B" on the battleship USS  Idaho at Guantánamo Bay , Cuba prior to the ship undergoing a major refit that added catapults on the stern. The Pup saw extensive use as a trainer. Student pilots completing basic flight training in

450-580: The Gnome Monosoupape mainly due to the Rhône’s lower fuel and lube oil consumption. The last of the Rhône series engines to go into production was the 9Z (or Z9), a small 60 horsepower rotary design that first ran in 1920. About fifty 9Zs were built. After the 9Z's production run was completed no more of Gnome et Rhône's engines used the Le Rhône badge. The British licensee for the Rhône engines

495-895: The "pup" of the larger two-seat Sopwith 1½ Strutter . The name never had official status as it was felt to be "undignified," but a precedent was set, and all later Sopwith types apart from the Triplane acquired animal names ( Camel , Dolphin , Snipe etc.), which ended up with the Sopwith firm being said to have created a "flying zoo" during the First World War. Data from British Naval Aircraft since 1912. General characteristics Performance Armament Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Peter Hooker Peter Hooker Limited owned an engineering business originally established in 1827 and carried on under

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540-471: The 80 hp (60 kW) Le Rhône, but subsequent Home Defence Pups standardised on the more powerful 100 hp (75 kW) Gnome Monosoupape , which provided an improved rate of climb. These aircraft were distinguishable by the addition of vents in the cowling face. In 1917, the Admiralty acquired the Sopwith Pup. Sopwith Pups were also used in many pioneering carrier experiments. On 2 August 1917,

585-689: The Ministry of Munitions. In February 1919 it was reported in Flight that it had now reverted to Peter Hooker Limited. A new general manager had been appointed R J Bray previously director of the Machine Tool Section, Aircraft Production Department. Peter Hooker Limited used this name on the rotary aero engines it manufactured under licence from the French company, known from the beginning of 1915 as Société des Moteurs Gnome et Rhône . Because

630-590: The Pioneer Flight Museum, Kingsbury Texas in a replica Fokker Dr 1. pioneerflightmuseum.org The engine had previously been flown in an original Thomas Morse Scout, which is now under restoration with another Le Rhône 80 hp engine planned for that flying aircraft. There are other reproductions of Dr 1's flying original Le Rhône engines, as well as the restored Thomas Morse Scouts in the United States. Sopwith Pup The Sopwith Pup

675-444: The Pup was also longitudinally unstable. At the peak of its operational deployment, the Pup equipped only four RNAS squadrons (Nos. 3, 4, 8 and 9), and three RFC squadrons (Nos. 54, 46 and 66). By the spring of 1917, the Pup had been outclassed by the newest German fighters. The RNAS replaced their Pups, first with Sopwith Triplanes , and then with Sopwith Camels . The RFC soldiered on with Pups, despite increasing casualties, until it

720-696: The RNAS received its first Pups for operational trials with "A" Naval Squadron. The first Pups reached the Western Front in October 1916 with No. 8 Squadron RNAS , and proved successful, with the squadron's Pups claiming 20 enemy machines destroyed in operations over the Somme battlefield by the end of the year. The first RFC Squadron to re-equip with the Pup was No. 54 Squadron , which arrived in France in December. The Pup quickly proved its superiority over

765-582: The Rhône series was a seven-cylinder rotary engine designed by the engineer Louis Verdet while he was employed by Rossel Peugeot .  In 1910, Louis Verdet founded the Société des Moteurs d’ Aviation Verdet with Pierre Berthet, however the partnership was short-lived.  In 1911, Verdet joined Edouard Martin, an engineer and racing driver, and other partners to form the Société des Moteurs Le Rhône in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis , Paris . From 1911 to 1913

810-650: The Société des Moteurs Gnome forming Gnome et Rhône. French wartime production of the Le Rhône series was undertaken by Gnome et Rhône at the company's Paris facilities located in Kellermann and Gennevilliers . 9,560 of the Le Rhône 9J and 8,700 of the 9C engines were produced in France during WW1, with a high proportion being exported. In 1915 around 45% of all Le Rhône engines manufactured in France were exported to Great Britain, Italy and Russia. Le Rhône series engines proved to be far more popular with aircraft manufacturers than Gnome et Rhône's other major engine series,

855-448: The Société des Moteurs Le Rhône produced a series of seven rotary engines which won many endurance trophies.  In 1912 the company's first nine-cylinder engine the 80 horsepower 9C went into production followed, in 1913, by the 110 horsepower 9J model. The 9C and the 9J models would become by far the most successful of the Rhône series. In July 1914 the Société des Moteurs Le Rhône was acquired, on very generous terms, by its main rival

900-709: The Thulin A and Thulin G respectively. In the United States, the Le Rhône 9C was manufactured by Union Switch and Signal Company of Pennsylvania . 1,057 American-built 9C engines were completed by the end of WW1. Le Rhône engines were produced in Gnome et Rhône's own factory in Italy until 1915, when the business was acquired by a Turin based consortium, after which licensed production continued. Le Rhône engines were assembled at Gnome et Rhône's factory in Moscow until 1917, when

945-523: The Western Front until the end of 1917. The remaining Pups were relegated to Home Defence and training units. The Pup's docile flying characteristics also made it ideal for use in aircraft carrier deck landing and takeoff experiments and training. In 1915, Sopwith produced a personal aircraft for the company's test pilot Harry Hawker , a single-seat, tractor biplane powered by a seven-cylinder 50 hp (37 kW) Gnome rotary engine which

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990-469: The aircraft. Later versions reverted to the normal undercarriage. Pups were used as ship-based fighters on three carriers: HMS  Campania , Furious and Manxman . Some other Pups were deployed to cruisers and battleships where they were launched from platforms attached to gun turrets. A Pup flown from a platform on the cruiser HMS  Yarmouth shot down the German Zeppelin L 23 off

1035-520: The back on the 110 horsepower 9J). The use of a carburetor allowed the Rhône series engines to be throttled during flight, which greatly reduced fuel and lube oil consumption. The ability to throttle the engine was cited as the reason for the Aéronautique Militaire ’s preference for the Rhône series over the 'Monosoupape. Le Rhône engines featured cylinders with grey iron liners which could be bored out and replaced when worn allowing

1080-415: The company was voluntarily wound up by its then shareholders at the end of the same year. The Walthamstow site was very big. Twenty years earlier the business had employed around 20 people. Peter Hooker's youngest son, Benjamin (1857–1932), sat on the board of some public listed companies. George Holt Thomas made a fortune from two popular magazines then began to manufacture aircraft. Perhaps there had been

1125-513: The cylinders to be reused. Sealing was done with piston rings only and without the use of the bronze obturator rings used on Gnome and Clerget engines. A complicated slipper bearing system was used in the Rhône series engines. The master rod was of a split type, which employed three concentric grooves, designed to accept slipper bearings from the other cylinders. The other connecting rods used inner-end bronze shoes, which were shaped to fit in

1170-472: The early Fokker , Halberstadt and Albatros biplanes. After encountering the Pup in combat, Manfred von Richthofen said, "We saw at once that the enemy aeroplane was superior to ours." The Pup's light weight and generous wing area gave it a good rate of climb. Agility was enhanced by having ailerons on both wings. The Pup had half the horsepower and armament of the German Albatros D.III , but

1215-480: The entire crankcase and its attached cylinders rotating around it as a unit. When compared with the Gnome Monosoupape, the Rhône engines were of a more conventional design with a carburetor mounted on the shaft and intake and exhaust valves mounted on the cylinder heads. Fuel was piped from the hollow shaft to the cylinder heads by copper tubes (mounted at the front of the 80 Horsepower 9C model and at

1260-514: The entire engine rotated they had to be precisely balanced, which necessitated precision machining of all parts and they were therefore extremely expensive to build. By the middle of 1917 the principal businesses of Peter Hooker Limited, both activities requiring great precision, were the manufacture of aero engines using the name "The British Gnôme and Le Rhône Engine Company" and the manufacture of Newall gauges. The works of these two businesses at Black Horse Lane, Walthamstow occupied two-thirds of

1305-645: The entire facility was seized by its workers during the revolution . Data from  : Le Rhône used just two different cylinder sizes in the majority of their production engines. The earlier motors starting from 1910, of which the 9C was the most numerous, had a bore & stroke of 105 x 140 mm; this size was used in 7, 9, 11, 14 and 18 cylinder engines. The later 9J series produced from 1913 (all with nine cylinders) used 112 x 170 mm. The 9R and 18R were slightly bored out to 115 x 170mm. Several enthusiasts are using original Le Rhône engines for World War I replica aircraft today. A flying example can be seen at

1350-483: The establishment of a factory to manufacture Gnome engines in Walthamstow, London, 1914. Burroughes remained a significant force active in the aviation industry until he retired from the board of Hawker-Siddeley in 1966 aged 82. The original business of Newall Engineering Company of Atherton's Quay, Warrington , was founded about 1890. It was a pioneer in introducing gauges to the engineering trade which enabled

1395-425: The exhaust valve. To make this system work a two-way push-pull rod was fitted, instead of the more conventional one-way pushrod. This feature required the cam followers to incorporate a positive action, a function designed in by using a combination of links and levers. The patented valve actuation design reduced engine vibration but it prevented valve overlap and so limited power output. The first of what would become

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1440-493: The freehold approximately 26-acre site. At that time numbers employed were workpersons 1,500 and staff 250, a total of 1,750 and the owners were Airco Limited and George Holt Thomas . By this time Peter Hooker Limited needed more capital and went to the stock exchange for it. Financial commentators noted that Hooker's issue of £250,000 of debenture stock to the public in July 1917 met a comparatively poor response when compared with

1485-418: The giant new engine known as Stromboli for daytime or away from London. The 12-cylinder engine could produce more than 1500 horsepower. Airliners fitted with three of them might well be able to carry 100 passengers at more than 100 mph. This engine was intended for airships. In May 1926 the chairman of BSA reported to BSA shareholders that Peter Hooker Limited (in liquidation) was continuing in business at

1530-599: The government disregard the Treasury's regulation that no orders be placed with a company in liquidation and place orders for Peter Hooker's newly developed engines. Peter Hooker Limited made a 1.5-litre 8-cylinder racing car engine to his design for J. G. Parry-Thomas 's "flat iron" cars. Newspapers reported that the clerk of the Tottenham Council had asked the Air Ministry to arrange further testing of

1575-407: The grooves. Using this design each rod took its own thrust which removed the strain that would otherwise have been put onto the master rod. The Rhône series engine's defining feature was an unconventional valve actuation system, with a single centrally-pivoting rocker arm moving the exhaust valve and the intake valve. When the arm moved down it opened the intake valve and when it moved up it opened

1620-544: The issue of Straker-Squire Limited, manufacturers of motor vehicles. The Straker-Squire issue was over-subscribed three times but for Hooker's ". . . an appreciable proportion of the amount offered" was not taken up. BSA acquired this whole business from George Holt Thomas and his Airco group in January 1920. It was then discovered that certain contracts with H G Burford & Co and D Napier & Son amounting to more than £1,000,000 were so unremunerative as to involve

1665-407: The manufacture of interchangeable component parts by a standard limit system. In 1909 Peter Hooker Limited purchased the complete business: plant, stock, patents and goodwill of Newall. Newall's were by then makers of limit gauges, measuring machines, micrometers, surface plates etc. During the later part of the war this part of the business was taken over and operated as a National Gauge Factory by

1710-463: The name Messrs Peter Hooker as printers' engineers at 12 Pump Row, Old Street Road, St Luke's, later at Pear Tree Court, Farringdon Road, London EC. The limited liability company was formed to own it in 1900. Operations were moved to Black Horse Lane Walthamstow , Essex (now in London), in 1901. There being insufficient business the Walthamstow site (for sale since 1921) was sold in early 1928 and

1755-452: The premises and they would shortly be employing more than 2,000 people there The works manager, Wallace Charles Devereux , and some staff took some of the plant to Slough and began High Duty Alloys Limited . In 1928 this part of the business was bought by Sydney Player who set up a new operation at Ponders End , Essex forming a new company with the old name, Newall Engineering Company Limited. Later, in 1933, he added machine tools to

1800-451: The site's sale was completed in early 1928 and the company was voluntarily wound up by its then shareholders towards the end of the same year. Operations finished at the end of 1927 on the agreement of a sale of the Walthamstow works—which had been for sale since 1921. The sale of Straker-Squire 's premises at Edmonton was reported in the same item. On 21 January 1928 Messrs Achille Serre , dyers and cleaners, announced they had purchased

1845-485: Was known as "Hawker's Runabout". Another four similar aircraft have been tentatively identified as Sopwith Sparrows . Sopwith next developed a larger and more powerful aircraft as a fighter that was heavily influenced by this design, although controlled laterally with ailerons rather than by wing warping . The resulting aircraft was a single-bay, single-seat biplane with a fabric-covered wooden framework and staggered equal-span wings. The cross-axle type main landing gear

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1890-418: Was much more manoeuvrable, especially over 15,000 ft (4,600 m) due to its low wing loading . Ace James McCudden stated that "When it came to manoeuvring, the Sopwith [Pup] would turn twice to an Albatros' once ... it was a remarkably fine machine for general all-round flying. It was so extremely light and well surfaced that after a little practice one could almost land it on a tennis court." However,

1935-608: Was possible to replace them with Camels in December 1917. The raids on London by Gotha bombers in mid-1917 caused far more damage and casualties than the earlier airship raids. The ineffective response by British interceptor units had serious political repercussions. In response, No. 66 Squadron was withdrawn to Calais for a short period, and No. 46 was transferred for several weeks to Sutton's Farm airfield near London. Two new Pup squadrons were formed specifically for Home Defence duties, No. 112 in July, and No. 61 in August. The first Pups delivered to Home Defence units utilised

1980-610: Was supported by V-struts attached to the lower fuselage longerons . The prototype and most production Pups were powered by the 80 hp (60 kW) Le Rhône 9C rotary engine. The armament was a single 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun synchronized with the Sopwith-Kauper synchronizer . A prototype was completed in February 1916 and sent to Upavon for testing in late March. The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) quickly ordered two more prototypes, then placed

2025-726: Was the Peter Hooker company. During WW1 thousands of 9Cs and 9Js were built by British firms including W.H Allen , F.W Berwick and Daimler . Prewar production of the 9C was undertaken in Austria by Steyr Werke and by Mercedes-Benz and Siemens in Germany. In 1916 the German firm Motorenfabrik Oberursel started producing the 9J model as the UR.II. In Sweden, 9C and 11F Le Rhône series engines were manufactured by AB Thulinverken as

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