Sopwith Aviation Company - Sopwith Camel: The Most Successful Fighter of World War One

[BACKRAGE44428]

well all them where very good pilots cause the rest crashed in training

[Uncle_J_Wick]

@Pangolin_Fan

That’s like calling the Bf 109 the most successful for claiming the most air kills, or the F6F the most successful for the highest K/D

@BearHasLanded

success is a story, not a statistic

This is misleading as the sole purpose of a fighter is to shoot down enemy aircraft - in the air, and not on the ground.

• Based on this the Bf 109 series is the most successful fighter aircraft of all time.
• The F6F has an alleged K/D of ~ 19:1 which is far lower that the Finnish B-239s with 33:1.

@joshje100

Also by pretty much everywhere I looked they determine most successful fighter for the war by the amount of air victories it had, and since that’s really the best figure to compare with from the time the Sopwith Camel was indeed the most successful fighter of WW1 which is also what is claimed by all the articles I could find.

You confirmed the sole measurement of fighters (=kills) and referred to missing data of contemporary fighters.

Technically seen you have to consider that the total aircraft losses in WW 1 are estimated to be ~ 100.000 aircraft. The 3 major air powers have estimated combat related losses of 4.000 (UK), 3.000 (France) and 3.200 - 4.000 (depending if you want to count so called “walk away losses” for the German Empire).

You can find those figures in rather rare books like The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft - i have one in my basement.

If you consider that the Albatros D Series fighters were just iterations of the D.I and being the most produced (by far) German fighter but produced in way smaller numbers than 5.000 Camels or 4.000 Spads you might be able to construct a case that the Albatros fighters might be even more successful.

Especially if you consider that data for the Germans showed that 78% of their combat losses were two-seaters or “more seaters” and another 15% related to AA fire and other causes.

@joshje100

credited with downing 1,294 enemy aircraft.

This number is imho highly controversial as it would mean that the Camel would have been responsible for ~ 30 - 40% of all German aircraft losses of the entire war in just 12 months of being used as fighter (mid 17 - mid 18).

No offense but the French produced outstanding aircraft too and were reported to have downed more aircraft than the RFC - which had the S.E.5 available too. So even if you find this claim all over the web you might want to decide by your own if it holds water or not.

I saw over the years lots of comments referring to inflated kill numbers as killing observer balloons were counted as air-kills in order to encourage fighters to attack them.