Sopwith Bee

The Sopwith Bee was a small biplane built in 1916 as a personal aircraft for Harry Hawker, Sopwith's chief test pilot, to use as a runabout and for aerobatics. It was a single-bay biplane with a 50 hp Gnome Omega rotary engine. As on Sopwith's fighters, the heaviest components were placed close to the centre of gravity to keep it manoeuvrable, which required a large semi-circular cutout in the trailing edge of the upper wing for the pilot, and lateral control came from wing warping. The Bee was later fitted with a synchronised Vickers machine gun, possibly in the hope of meeting an Admiralty requirement for a small scout able to operate from torpedo-boat destroyers, but nothing came of it and the type was not developed further. It was sometimes called the Tadpole.