Horrible RC Plane Crash - Giant Scale Sopwith Pup WWI Warbird Crash at Warbirds Over Whatcom

This video shows a quick flight of a Giant Scale Sopwith Pup WWI Warbird on a windy day. It was the only RC Plane Crash at the 2015 Warbirds Over Whatcom event today and it was horrible! Even so, I feel lucky to have captured it on video!

This crash was pretty bad, but it wasn't quite as bad as my buddy Bill's HobbyKing Durafly MK-24 Spitfire WWII Warbird exploding when it hit the ground. Both will be on my next RC Plane Crash Compilation video though!

Here is what Wiki has to say about this Bipe:

"The Sopwith Pup was a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It entered service with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in the autumn of 1916. With pleasant flying characteristics and good maneuverability, the aircraft proved very successful. The Pup was eventually outclassed by newer German fighters, but it was not completely replaced on the Western Front until the end of 1917. Remaining Pups were relegated to Home Defense and training units. The Pup's docile flying characteristics also made it ideal for use in aircraft carrier deck landing and takeoff experiments.

In May 1916, the RNAS received its first Pups for operational trials with "A" Naval Squadron. The first Pups reached the Western Front in October 1916 with No. 8 Squadron RNAS, and proved successful, with the squadron's Pups claiming 20 enemy machines destroyed in operations over the Somme battlefield by the end of the year.[2] The first RFC Squadron to re-equip with the Pup was No. 54 Squadron, which arrived in France in December. The Pup quickly proved its superiority over the early Fokker, Halberstadt and Albatros biplanes. After encountering the Pup in combat, Manfred von Richthofen said, "We saw at once that the enemy airplane was superior to ours."[3]

The Pup's light weight and generous wing area gave it a good rate of climb. Agility was enhanced by installing ailerons on both wings. The Pup had half the horsepower and armament of the German Albatros D.III, but was much more manoeuvrable, especially over 15,000 ft (4,500 m) due to its low wing loading. Ace James McCudden stated that "When it came to manoeuvring, the Sopwith [Pup] would turn twice to an Albatros' once ... it was a remarkably fine machine for general all-round flying. It was so extremely light and well surfaced that after a little practice one could almost land it on a tennis court."[3] However, the Pup was also longitudinally unstable.

At the peak of its operational deployment, the Pup equipped only four RNAS squadrons (Nos. 3, 4, 8 and 9), and three RFC squadrons (Nos. 54, 46 and 66). By the spring of 1917, the Pup had been outclassed by the newest German fighters. The RNAS replaced their Pups, first with Sopwith Triplanes, and then with Sopwith Camels. The RFC soldiered on with Pups, in spite of increasing casualties, until it was possible to replace them with Camels in December 1917."