which came first the sop triplane or pup?

[albatros1234]

i'm not sure i thought the tripe was developed from the pup but i could be wrong. i have been before.

[rainbase]

The Pup came first. If I'm not mistaken, the Tripe was built around a Pup fuselage.

[Syd Solo]

The Pup arrived at the front in October 1916 and was almost immediately into battle. By the end of 1916 a number of victories had been credited to Pup pilots.

The Tripe first arrived with No 1 Naval Squadron in December 1916 but didn't see action until February 1917. From there, of course, it was immensely successful in a very short time.

Cheers

Syd

[albatros1234]

thats what i thought ,the salesman at the hobbyshop today said pup came from the tripe. but i said no way the tripe is a pup with three thinned wings for extra lift and manuverability.

[Rumpler]

Originally Posted by albatros1234

thats what i thought ,the salesman at the hobbyshop today said pup came from the tripe. but i said no way the tripe is a pup with three thinned wings for extra lift and manuverability.

Actually, the big advantage of the tripe was pilot visibility---three thin wings were easier to see around, above, and below than two wider-chord ones.

[albatros1234]

sure rumpler that makes sense but wouldnt more wing area create more lift too and therfore manuverability?

[stevedrew]

Originally Posted by albatros1234

sure rumpler that makes sense but wouldnt more wing area create more lift too and therfore manuverability?

The three wings (plus the small aerofoil section between the two wheels on the Fokker version) gave the Tripe tremendous lift, which meant that the wings could be shortened considerably, and still have greater lift than their opponents. They were still able to outclimb anything in the sky, and it was the fact that the wingspan was considerably reduced which contributed most to its manoeuvrability.

[ONEALM]

I think the Tripe actually had less wing area than the Pup 231 ft2 as opposed to 254 ft2.

[albatros1234]

i didnt mean more wing area in the sense of sq feet i kinda meant more leading edge linear footage, to my thinking would increase lift.

[Rumpler]

Originally Posted by albatros1234

i didnt mean more wing area in the sense of sq feet i kinda meant more leading edge linear footage, to my thinking would increase lift.

I know on a monoplane that's (sort of) true; that's why sailplanes have such long, thin wings (called "high aspect ratio"). With a triplane I'm not so sure, since you get drag/interference from the airflow around the wingtips. A triplane has three times the wingtip vortices that a monoplane does, so I'm not sure you'd get any improvement other than roll rate (three short wings roll much easier/faster than one long one). I do know, though, that Sopwith developed the triplane specifically to overcome blind spots the Pup had, due to its wide biplane wings.