Nice Shots of a Restored Sopwith Triplane

[Johnny Curedents]

That's one Aurora kit I would liked to have had. Never found one, though. And to my knowledge SMER has not reissued it. I think I only had the Nieuport 11 and the Breguet.

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I built the DR-I, Fokker D-7, Sopwith Camel, Nieuport (with rockets mounted), SE-5A, but never the Triplane; I don't even remember ever seeing the last mentioned on the shelves (this is 60 years ago now!). I remember also building a Bristol F.2 and I think it too was from Aurora, but perhaps not.

 

[Vic P]

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This looks like the Sopwith Triplane (Black Maria) that was a part of the Canadian National Aeronautical Collection and is now in the Canadian Aviation & Space Museum in Ottawa, Canada. They did get a number of the old aircraft in the collection flying for the 100th anniversary of Canada (in '67). My old Air Cadet squadron was named after this aircraft ... and no, that wasn't in 1967 .

 

[Vic P]

That's cool stuff indeed. Do you know if the rotary engine is an original or new build?

If this is the Triplane at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum then these pics were taken in 1967 when a few old WW I aircraft were put in the air for a bit for the 100 anniversary of Canada. So it is quite likely that the original engine was used. It definitely has a rotary engine in it. I must have about 50-100 pictures of this plane when I was at the museum several years ago.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The WW1 exhibit at Seattle's museum of flight has some fantastic original and replica aircraft. I highly recommend a visit.

Their replica Sopwith Triplane is painted in Canadian colours.

Sopwith Triplane Reproduction | The Museum of Flight

 

[wingnuts]

Camouflage is for sissies!

 

[nuuumannn]

The Triplane in the pictures is The Vintage Aviator's reproduction ZK-SOP and no, it isn't powered by a rotary radial, sadly.

 

[RagTag]

I built the DR-I, Fokker D-7, Sopwith Camel, Nieuport (with rockets mounted), SE-5A, but never the Triplane; I don't even remember ever seeing the last mentioned on the shelves (this is 60 years ago now!). I remember also building a Bristol F.2 and I think it too was from Aurora, but perhaps not.

Since you all are talking Aurora, great memories, I built a small group of them back in the day. They typically came with black parts for engines, machine guns and wheels which I remember thinking back then was pretty technical! Here is a rescue from my hot attic this year where my 1/48 Aurora Sopwith Triplane "Black Maria" had been squirrelled away for thirty years and forgotten about. I built it around the early seventies probably. Still has the ceiling hook and all. Amazing, the engine rotates like a proper rotary. Debating now to actually try and paint it or leave it in its seventies glory and buy a new one to do properly. I was shocked in doing research after finding it that Collishaw's Black Maria was not all black like Jo Kotula's great box art, and the fabric were in different factory colors of olive drab. I know you can't trust black and white photos for color determinations, but there are other pictures of the Black Flight like of "Peggy" and some others where the whole fuselage looks black or without very discernible difference between the cowling say and the fuselage fabric. Anyone here know if any of the Black Flight planes were painted completely black?

 

[SaparotRob]

Since you all are talking Aurora, great memories, I built a small group of them back in the day. They typically came with black parts for engines, machine guns and wheels which I remember thinking back then was pretty technical! Here is a rescue from my hot attic this year where my 1/48 Aurora Sopwith Triplane "Black Maria" had been squirrelled away for thirty years and forgotten about. I built it around the early seventies probably. Still has the ceiling hook and all. Amazing, the engine rotates like a proper rotary. Debating now to actually try and paint it or leave it in its seventies glory and buy a new one to do properly. I was shocked in doing research after finding it that Collishaw's Black Maria was not all black like Jo Kotula's great box art, and the fabric were in different factory colors of olive drab. I know you can't trust black and white photos for color determinations, but there are other pictures of the Black Flight like of "Peggy" and some others where the whole fuselage looks black or without very discernible difference between the cowling say and the fuselage fabric. Anyone here know if any of the Black Flight planes were painted completely black?
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Blast from the past. I built that one too.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Cool. We also have one at our local museum. Sopwith Triplane | The Hangar Flight Museum

 

[MIflyer]

I may have an old issue of Popular aviation with an article and artwork on "Collishaw and The Black Flight" I'll look.

And here is the Profile info.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Aircraft in Profile...a classic!

 

[MIflyer]

You can go on ebay and buy all of them on a CD for about $7. Of course they also had profiles on Ships, Guns, Armored Fighting Vehicles and Cars.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Heresy!

 

[wingnuts]

Since you all are talking Aurora, great memories, I built a small group of them back in the day. They typically came with black parts for engines, machine guns and wheels which I remember thinking back then was pretty technical! Here is a rescue from my hot attic this year where my 1/48 Aurora Sopwith Triplane "Black Maria" had been squirrelled away for thirty years and forgotten about. I built it around the early seventies probably. Still has the ceiling hook and all. Amazing, the engine rotates like a proper rotary. Debating now to actually try and paint it or leave it in its seventies glory and buy a new one to do properly. I was shocked in doing research after finding it that Collishaw's Black Maria was not all black like Jo Kotula's great box art, and the fabric were in different factory colors of olive drab. I know you can't trust black and white photos for color determinations, but there are other pictures of the Black Flight like of "Peggy" and some others where the whole fuselage looks black or without very discernible difference between the cowling say and the fuselage fabric. Anyone here know if any of the Black Flight planes were painted completely black?
View attachment 598269

I built a wooden Fokker DR1 out of offcuts from my son's picture framing business.

 

[nuuumannn]

I built a wooden Fokker DR1 out of offcuts from my son's picture framing business.

Sounds very plauseable! In the Great War, aircraft production was contracted to all sorts of different manufacturers!

The Dr I in the local aviation museum is modelled on Richtofen's famous 425/17 in which he was shot down.

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The scene being depicted here, the square of fabric with the Iron Cross in it being torn from the aircraft is replicated from life, as the museum has an Iron Cross marking from the original aircraft.

Knights of the Sky 70

A flying interpretation of same aircraft built in the early 80s by a sadly now deceased warbird pilot Stuart Tantrum, and flown at local airshows.

Knights of the Sky 44

 

[RagTag]

Thanks Mlflyer for the profiles, I may have to give up my quest for the legendary (in my mind) all black "Black Tripe". But before I do so in the court I present the following flying in the face of all the museum restorations and flying replicas. My first case is "Peggy", although probably not in the Black Flight, was in No. 1 (Naval) Squadron with what looks like an all black fuselage in its picture.

Your profile post shows it a consistent olive drab, which could possibly take on the black appearance in the photo. But this is definitively of darker cast. Or the profile is wrong!

My next case was this picture of a captured Tripe. The fabric even looks darker than the cowling. Possibly black tail and wheel covers. This could be the smoking gun. Or the cowling is red, doubtful! In any case a prime candidate.

The final case is this flight line picture of No. 1 (Naval) Squadron. N5454 looks particularly like a good candidate for the feared all "Black Tripe". Note on the far aircraft the fins are of lighter cast than the fuselage sides. This may be a mixed shot of Flights A, B and C which had tails and other elements painted red, black and blue, respectively (source: an excellent Database article on the Sopwith Triplane in Aeroplane Magazine, Feb. 2017).

So without corroborating memoirs, squadron logs, relic doped fabric, A/I photometric studies, or museum survivor visits, and not having discovered any missing photos of Abraham Lincoln or Billy the Kid, with N5454 I rest my meager case for an all black Black Tripe. Maybe it can't be proven, but maybe can't be disproven. After all, The Great Waldo Pepper and Flyboys "prove" there were all black Fokkers! All potshots and misguided opinions welcome!

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff!