The Shuttleworth Collection's Sopwith Pup, G-EBKY flying at Old Warden Aerodrome during the Shuttleworth Vintage Airshow on 6th September 2020.

In late 1915, Sopwith designed and built what came to be known as 'Harry Hawker’s Runabout', a small low-powered single-seat biplane for the company’s chief test pilot.

From this it developed the Sopwith Pup, a single-bay biplane with a fabric-covered wooden framework and staggered equal-span wings. It was powered initially by an 80 hp le Rhone rotary engine and armed with a single fixed, synchronised Vickers machine-gun.

Completed by early February 1916, the new aircraft made its first flight that month and was evaluated by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) with which it was officially named the Sopwith Type 9901.

The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) saw the evaluation report and also placed an order for what it would call the Sopwith Scout although the type was very quickly dubbed the 'Pup' by its pilots, who recognised its lineage from the same company’s larger 1½ Strutter.

By the end of June 1916, orders for the Pup had been put in place by both the RNAS and RFC and the new fighter entered service with RNAS No 1 Wing in early September 1916, shooting down a German LVG two-seater on the 24th.

The RFC took delivery of its first Pup three weeks later and by the end of 1916 was operating the type with No 54 Sqn in France. Over the next few months more RFC squadrons were equipped with the Pup which was noted for its ability to maintain height during the twists and turns of dogfighting. Unfortunately it quickly became evident that the type was severely under armed.

The Pup served with three frontline RFC squadrons (46, 54 and 66) as well as two Home Defence units (61 and 112 Squadrons).

Experiments with a more powerful engine were undertaken by the RFC with the fitting of a 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape in spring 1917, although performance remained much the same. An even more powerful 110 hp le Rhone was also tested but found to create balance problems, particularly on landing and so this was abandoned.

The Pup enjoyed a level of air superiority over its enemy counterparts whilst serving with the RFC from its introduction in late 1916 until mid-1917, when it began to be outclassed by Germany’s newest crop of fighters as well as its successor, the Sopwith Camel.

The last frontline RFC unit to operate the Pup was 54 Squadron until December 1917. The RFC continued to use the Pup for pilot training.

The RNAS enjoyed success with the Pup, which equipped four units (3, 4, 8 and 9 Squadrons) as well as the Seaplane Defence Flight.

One of the most important uses of the Pup in RNAS service was in the development of deck-flying from ships.

Initially used aboard seaplane-carrier vessels, equipped with short flying-off decks, there were no provisions for alighting back onto the deck so they were fitted with flotation bags, enabling them to be hoisted back onboard after ditching.

Rather than face the discomfort and potential destructive impact of ditching, it was decided to investigate taking off from a short platform mounted atop a ship’s gun turret. This also allowed for the aircraft’s precarious return to the ship’s deck, both feats which were pioneered by the Pup.

In June 1917, Flight Commader F.J. Rutland was the first to fly a Pup off a 20ft platform, fitted to the light cruiser HMS Yarmouth.

Even more spectacularly, on 2nd August that year, Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning became the first man in history to return an aircraft on to the deck of an aircraft carrier. He landed a Pup on a specially prepared 'flight-deck' fitted to the forward end of HMS Furious.

Sadly, Dunning was killed just a few days later when attempting another deck-landing on the same vessel.

These experiments led to wider shipborne use of the Pup and at least six light cruisers were fitted with the short platform as tested on HMS Yarmouth. The Pup was also used for the trials of arrester-gear systems as well as skid undercarriages. The latter were adopted when Pups were later deployed aboard HMS Furious in 1918.

Three original Pups survive today of 1,847 that were built.

The last 10 Pups built by Sopwith in 1919 were converted to 2 seaters for civilian use and named Doves. In the mid-thirties Richard Shuttleworth found this one being flown from a field at Kempston. The aircraft had no Certificate of Airworthiness but The Dove was swapped for an Avro 504. The Dove was then restored to Pup configuration, completed by February 1938.

In 2004/5 it was extensively refurbished in the colours of 9917, a Beardmore built aircraft which was fitted with Le Prieur Rockets when it served for a time on HMS Manxman, a seaplane carrier.

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