Behind The Yoke

The video below features some background history of a very nicely restored British WWI Sopwith Camel. As the video progresses the Camel is shown flying next to a Spitfire, a famous WWII plane. Pretty cool to see two of the most famous warbirds flying right next to each other. I found it fascinating how the Sopwith rotary engine sounds and how it hard was to control during takeoff and flight. The scarf pilots had on was not for looks it was for wiping their goggles from the twelve pints of oil that flew overboard each hour. Give the video a watch, pay attention to the sound of the engine, and then continue reading the post.

So, I saw the above video sometime in the middle of October. A couple of weeks later during Halloween, I heard another Sopwith Camel. Stay with me, I’m getting somewhere. Its tradition for me to watch every year Charlie Brown and The Great Pumpkin. I really don’t think I’ve missed an episode since I started watching it as a boy. Anyhow, one of my favorite parts in the cartoon is when Snoopy gets on his Sopwith Camel warbird/doghouse and launches an attach against the infamous Red Baron. I noticed something very familiar. The sound of Snoopy’s engine was in fact an audio clip from a real Sopwith Camel engine. This made me giggle. Watch the clip from the Great Pumpkin below and at about 3:15 Snoopy’s engine starts. Call me a nerd but I thought it was awesome that they used a real Sopwith Camel engine sound for the cartoon.