Sopwith Two-Seat Scout Explained

The Sopwith Two-Seat Scout (or Type 880) was a 1910s British biplane Anti-Zeppelin scout biplane designed and built for the Admiralty by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It was nicknamed the Spinning Jenny due to a tendency to enter a spin.

Design and development

First flown in November 1914 the Two-Seat Scout was developed from the 1914 Circuit of Britain seaplane. It was two-bay unswept biplane with equal span wings and ailerons fitted on all four wings and a braced tailplane and a single rudder. It had a fixed tailskid landing gear with a cross-axle type main gear with twin wheels carried on vee legs under the fuselage. It was powered by a nose-mounted 100 hp (75 kW) Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine driving a two-bladed propeller. It had two tandem open cockpits and could carry small bombs under the fuselage.

Operators

• Royal Naval Air Service

References

• Book: Bruce, J.M.. British Aeroplanes 1914–18. 1957. Putnam. London.
• Book: Taylor, Michael J. H. . Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation . 1989 . Studio Editions . London .
• Book: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982–1985). Orbis Publishing. 2940.