Thursday, 25 February 2016

Alcock A.1

The Alcock A.1 AKA Alcock Scout AKA Sopwith Mouse (unofficial designation), was a British curious fighter that was made-up from other fighter spare parts.

It was assembled by Flight Lieutenant John Alcock (who, after the war would become famous for performing the first non-stop trans-atlantic flight flying a modified Vickers Vimy from Newfoundland to Ireland) at Moudros, a Royal Naval Air Service base in the Aegean sea,  which was used to perform air raids against the Ottoman Empire.

Alcock took the lower wings from a Sopwith Triplane, the upper wings from a Sopwith Pup, and both the tailplane and elevators from a Sopwith Camel and joined them to a fuselage design of his own.

It was powered by a 110hp Clerget 9Z engine and was armed with a single Vickers 0.303 machine-gun.

As we previously said, it was commonly known as the Sopwith Mouse by the pilots based in Moudros. Alcock never flew his own creation, but one of his fellow pilot did, the FSL Norman Starbuck piloted in various missions, mainly in escort role. The first fly was 15th October 1917 and, unfortunately, it crashed on early 1918 and was written-off.









Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcock_Scout
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
3. http://warnepieces.blogspot.com.es/2011/09/alcock-a1-unofficially-called-sopwith.html

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