Sopwith Three-seater

The Sopwith Three-seater, also called the Tractor Biplane, the Sopwith 80 hp Biplane or the Sopwith D1, was one of the first aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company and was flown in February 1913. It developed from the Hybrid, a rebuilt 1912 machine that combined Wright Biplane wings with a Coventry Ordnance Works fuselage. The new two-bay biplane had an 80 horsepower Gnome Lambda rotary engine, two cockpits with passengers seated side by side in front of the pilot, and celluloid windows for a downward view. One example set British altitude records in 1913. Nine went to the Royal Flying Corps and others to the Royal Naval Air Service, which used three over Belgium in 1914 for reconnaissance and bombing.