Northern Aeroplane Workshops' Sopwith Camel

[Jimko]

A few weeks ago I had inquired on the forum here as to whether anyone knew the status of the Sopwith Camel build being done for the Shuttleworth collection at Old Warden Airfield in England which I hope to visit next May.

After another inquiry, Shuttleworth finally forwarded my email to Robert Richardson of NAW who kindly gave me a status on the work progress.
He also included a picture of the Camel frame in the workshop which I thought I would share with the OFF community.

Cheers!

(Robert's note to me)

Hello Jim

Karen Wiltshire at the Shuttleworth Collection fowarded your email for my attention. Pleased to hear you are planning a trip next year and will be pleased to see you at our workshop in May. The Camel is coming along nicely, but will certainly not be finished by then. Unfortunately, We are about 3 years from that.

Our workshop is someway from Old Warden - about 150 miles to the North at Batley, West Yorkshire. We have been involved with The Collection for many years-over 30 infact. The arrangement is that Shuttleworth finance the projects and we, who are all volunteers, provide the labour.

If you type in Northern Aeroplane Workshops it will take you to the Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society (SVAS) site. Additionally, if you look at Shuttleworth.org you will see we have previously built a Sopwith Triplane and Bristol M.1c. All our projects are built from scratch and to original drawings so they are 'late production' rather than replicas which seems to cover a mulitude of sins these days.

If I can be of any further help, please let me know.

Thank you for your interest. I will try and send a very recent photo of the Camel.

Kind Regards
Robert Richardson
NAW

[Olham54]

Thank you for the good photography. It shows, how fragile (compared to modern planes) these biplanes were constructed. (I almost might not shoot on them no more). Perhaps they should leave half the plane without skin, so the beautiful framework can be seen.

[womenfly2]

Great to see they answered. Build looks really fantastic! Love their workshop too!

BTW, ORA is in the process of restoring their Camel this Winter.

Thanks for posting the picture.

Cheers,
WF2

[Jimko]

Olham54...Yes, they do look rather fragile! I think the balsa models I built of Camels when I was in my teens looked stronger...

WF2...Glad to hear that ORA is restoring their Camel. I will get down to see ORA some day, I've promised myself.

Thanks for the notes!