Sopwith Pup N5182 - RAF Museum - Cosford, Shifnal, Shropshire, UK
N 52° 38.681 W 002° 19.052
30U E 546175 N 5832964
The Sopwith Pup N5182, was a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft, and is now located in the War in the Air building at the RAF Museum in Cosford.
Waymark Code: WM15D7C
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/12/2021
Views: 1
The Sopwith Pup N5182, was a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft, that was built by the Sopwith Aviation Company at Kingston upon Thames in 1916.
It was operated by Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps in the autumn of 1916 in Belgium and Northern France. Private collector Lieut.-Commander K C D (Desmond) St Cyrien MBE (retired) acquired N5182 from the French Air Force in 1959 and restored it to airworthy condition as G-APUP. It was flown after the rebuild at Fairoaks on 11th August 1973.
The RAF Museum Cosford acquired the plane in 1982. (
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"The Pup, thought of by its pilots as the perfect flying machine, was used extensively by the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps both at home and abroad.
The first Pups reached the Western Front in the autumn of 1916 allowing the enthusiastic British pilots to maintain their hard won domination until mid-1917 when newer German aircraft redressed the balance.
"no matter how good the [German] pilot was, when it came to manoeuvring the Sopwith [Pup] would turn twice to an Albatros’ once.” Lt (later Major) J.T.B McCudden VC – British fighter ace.
Officialdom hated the name Pup thinking it undignified. They decreed the aircraft should only be referred to as the Sopwith Scout; this order did more than anything else to perpetuate the name Pup in history. Much experimentation took place at sea with Pups some were flown from tiny platforms built on gun-turrets of cruisers and on 2 August 1917 Sqn Cdr Dunning became the first man to land an aircraft on an aircraft carrier when he brought a Pup down on HMS Furious. Dunning was killed on his third landing when his machine crashed over the side of the ship." SOURCE: (
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A detailed history of this plane by Andrew Simpson can be seen at the following link - RAF Museum Cosford Documents/ Collections: (
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