The Snipe was similar to the earlier Camel, with larger wings and a
more powerful engine. Although it was only slightly faster than the
Camel, it lacked the nasty flight quirks of the Camel and was therefore
much easier to fly. Although not as fast as other Allied fighters, or
as agile as the Camel, the Snipe was a very good dogfighter. The Snipe
entered service in 1918 and served with the British until 1926, some
seeing action in the Russian civil war. Over 2,000 were built.
The Snipe burns 7.7 gallons of gasoline per hour at routine usage.
Subassemblies: Recon Fighter chassis +2, Recon
Wings with Biplane option +2, three fixed wheels +0.
P&P: 172-kW aerial gasoline engine with 172-kW old prop
and 21-gallon standard fuel tank [Body].
Occ: 1 XCS Cargo: 5 Body
Weaponry
2xAircraft LMG/.303 Vickers [Body:F] (250 each)*
4x25 lb Cooper bombs [Wings:U]
* linked to fire together
Statistics
| Size: 19'x31'x10' | Payload: 0.2 tons | Lwt: 1.05 tons |
| Volume: 96 |
Maint.: 103 hours | Price: $3,700 |
HT: 8
HP: 30 [body], 50 [each wing], 3 [each wheel]
| aSpeed: 121 | aAccel: 10 |
aDecel: 38 |
aMR: 8.5 | aSR: 1 |
| Stall: 53 mph |
Design Notes
Design aSpeed is 127 mph and stall speed is 38; the historical top
speed and an estimated stall speed,
as well as actual wing
area (274 sf) has been used, To increase weight,
a HP gas engine was not used and the chassis weight (and cost and HPs)
were doubled. The latter was also justified by the Snipe being more
robust than the Camel. Loaded weight was still increased by a 21%.
The Cooper bombs do 6dx5[6d] damage.
The upper wing was designed to allow the mounting of a single Lewis
LMG, but none were installed in production aircraft.
Variants
The Slalmander was an armored Snipe to be used for ground attack. It
provided armor protection for the pilot (DR 18 all sides but top) and
was slightly slower (aSpeed 117). aMR drops to 7.25. Some 37 were built
and none saw combat in WWI.