Sopwith Dragon

The Sopwith Dragon was a single-seat fighter biplane that Sopwith developed from the Snipe in 1918 by replacing the Bentley rotary with the more powerful ABC Dragonfly radial engine. The fuselage was lengthened by 22 inches to balance the heavier engine. The Royal Air Force ordered 30 Dragonfly-engined Snipes in June 1918 and, after the Armistice, switched a cancelled Snipe order to the Dragon. About 200 airframes were built and stored while the Dragonfly, which suffered ignition faults and could not be made reliable, was awaited. Only a few were completed with engines, none reached a squadron, and the type was declared obsolete in April 1923.