A Buyer's Guide To Collector Aircraft: Snoopy's Famous Sopwith

D. C. Agle

06/03/2002

Al Letcher recalls how he felt when he first saw B6291. “It took my breath away,” says Letcher, who owns the vintage airplane. “It was so genuine it even smelled the part.”

The plane, a Sopwith Camel, was designed in Kingston-upon-Thames in England by the Sopwith Aviation Co. and first flew in December 1916. Pilots soon discovered that like a real camel, the nimble fighter could turn and bite you. The aircraft weighed only 929 pounds, but most of its weight was concentrated in the front seven feet of the fuselage, giving the Camel its distinctive hump. The weight, combined with the plane’s powerful rotary engine, created torque during takeoff and sudden maneuvers. During World War I, 413 Camel pilots died in combat, and 385 died from non-combat related incidents with the plane. (Click image to enlarge)

While dangerous in the hands of a novice, the Camel was agile and lethal in the hands of a seasoned pilot. The plane entered service in mid-1917, the final year of the war, and was credited with 1,294 kills, more victories than any other Allied fighter. The Camel was also the first single-seat fighter to fly against German night bombers, the first to be used as a dive-bomber, and the first airplane to be successfully launched from a dirigible in flight.

In August 1918, a Camel flown by Lt. S.D. Culley grounded the German super Zeppelin L-53. And Canadian Capt. A. Roy Brown of No. 209 Squadron RAF is said to have shot down Manfred von Richthofen on April 21, 1918.
On September 21, 1917, Letcher’s Camel (serial number B6291) was delivered to the Aeroplane Depot Dunkerque and handed over to No. 10 Naval, the renowned Royal Navy’s frontline fighter squadron based in Droglandt, France. On September 28, after two days on the front lines, B6291 crash-landed. Its pilot, Flight Sub-Lieutenant C.E. Bramhall, was injured but survived the crash. The Camel was shipped back to England for repairs, but then on June 7, 1918, the plane crashed on takeoff, and 2nd Lt. J.B. Risk was slightly wounded. Little more than a month later, 2nd Lt. G.V. Straker was seriously injured when he spun B6291 into the ground. On August 16, 1918, with three crashes in its logbook, Sopwith Camel B6291 was struck off charge (decommissioned).

The story, according to Let-cher, is that two former Royal Flying Corps pilots purchased B6291 for 5 pounds. “But they couldn’t afford to get it into flying condition, and it eventually ended up in a barn in Lincolnshire, where it stayed for several decades,” Letcher says. (Click image to enlarge)

In the 1960s, aviation enthusiasts rediscovered B6291 and began a 30-year odyssey that took the plane from a moldy crate and transformed the Camel to a museum-quality World War I relic. Rebuilt by AJD Engineering of Milden in Suffolk, B6291 is, according to Letcher, the most authentic Camel in existence, from its low-octane, castor oil–loving 110-hp LeRone radial engine to the two operable .303 Vickers machine guns.

Shipped to the United States in a multi-aircraft transaction, B6291 now sits in a Mojave, Calif., hangar, awaiting a new owner with $900,000 and an interest in aviation history. “It deserves a good home with someone who can appreciate what an amazing piece of history it has,” says Letcher. “Sure, you can fly it, but one of the greatest pleasures in owning it is to sit in the cockpit and take yourself back 85 years.”

Letcher Helicopters, 661.945.1856