Sopwith Pup N6161 Reborn: The Amazing Story of a Fighter Aircraft Flown by Both Sides in World War One and in the Air Once More

Description

This book follows the remarkable history of Sopwith Pup N6161, an allied World War One aircraft which was shot down in 1917, then flown by the Germans and is now being recreated to fly again. The author, Andy Saunders, takes the reader through the life span of the aircraft, from the development and naming of the Sopwith 'Pup' to its eventual restoration and journey back into the air. The N6161 was built in Kingston and shipped to France in 1917, where it embarked on a brief mission that resulted in its fateful capture by German forces. Sopwith Pup Re-born, contains firsthand accounts from the pilots G. L. Elliott of the allied forces, and Karl Myer, the German pilot, and accounts of the incarceration of G . L. Elliott as a POW. After nearly one hundred years since its original flight and capture, the Sopwith is being restored to its former glory. After painstaking work and research using the original waxed linen drawings from 1916-1918, the aircraft will be taking to the skies once more. With full colour photos of the reconstruction in process and original photographs from its time in World War One service, this book is the first of its kind, rather like the aircraft itself.

Andy Saunders lives in East Sussex and has been involved with historic aviation for over thirty years and is well known in the aircraft preservation and restoration field. He is also respected as a serious researcher and author and is a prolific contributor to the aviation press as well as having several books published. He is passionate about flying and history and regularly travels in search of historic aircraft and artefacts. He frequently acts as advisor or consultant to film and television companies, and has recently been appointed editor of Britain at War. Roy Palmer had an interest in aviation from a young age. His career progressed from engineering into a strategy consultancy, which eventually provided funds to extend the aviation interest. His friend, Guy Black, mentioned that he had the basis for the re-construction of a 1917 Sopwith Pup, with the original 1916/17 Sopwith Scout waxed-linen factory drawings, a le-Rhone engine, and a number of original parts, some originating directly from N6161. Research led him to archives of the German and British pilot who had that fateful encounter in 1917. Palmer wanted to tell the story of the aircraft, its reconstruction back to flight, and the stories of the two pilots who met over Flanders on that cold winter's day.