Corgi Aviation 1/48 scale AA38104: Sopwith Camel of 43 Sqn RAF, Henry Winslow Woollett, Spring 1918.

Limited edition of 1,500 pieces

Length 4.75 inches Wingspan 7 inches

PLEASE NOTE: Certificate is missing on this model

Henry Woollett began the war serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment and fought at Gallipoli in 1915. In 1916 he transferred to the RFC and quickly gained a reputation as a fearless balloon busting pilot. He returned to England in 1917 to work as a flight instructor but returned to the front in March 1918 and served with No. 43 Sqn RFC. On 12th April 1918, flying Sopwith Camel D6402, he achieved no fewer than 6 kills in one day and set an unbeaten record for a fighter ace of the First World War. He finished the war with a total of 35 kills and was awarded the Military Cross (and bar), the DSO as well as the French Legion d’Honneur and Croix de Guerre. Woolett died in October 1969.

Designed as a heavier, more powerful refinement of the Sopwith Pup, the Camel was first flown in 1917. Earning its name from the distinctive humped fairing surrounding its twin .303 Vickers machine guns, the Camel’s unforgiving flight characteristics claimed the lives of many students in flight training. In the hands of a skilled pilot though, it was an extreme dogfighter that could out-maneuver any contemporary with the possible exception of the Fokker Dr.I. Common for airplanes of that era, a fixed crankshaft configuration allowed the entire engine to spin with the propeller, creating strong gyroscopic forces that adversely affected the airplane’s handling under power. Together with the S.E.5a, the Camel helped gain superiority over the German Albatros and is credited with shooting down 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied fighter.