Building and researching the Sopwith Bat Boat led my to read about the founder of Sopwith Aviation and his career in flying and aircraft maunfacture.
Sopwith Aviation Company Limited
Formed on 15th December 1913
Became defunct 17 September 1920, taken over by H.G. Hawker Engineering.
Originally base at Brooklands and founded by Thomas Octave Murdock Sopwith in June 1912. Moved to a factory in SW London on Canbury Park Rd in Kingston Upon Thames, a recently closed roller-skating rink.
The company built over 16,000 aircraft during WW1, many more built by sub-contractors.
So I thought I would attempt some of his other aircraft,
He first flew in loaned/ hired aircraft, His first purchase was a Howard Wright Monoplane that he crashed.
He ran a flying school at Brooklands and eventually started making his own aircraft.
He did apparently crash into the sewage farm at Brooklands.
