Parts of Pup, a soupçon of Snipe. It’s an interesting combination, the Sopwith Dove, and the very faithful reproduction G-EAGA reflects this. Owned by Andrew Wood but based with the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, it helps immeasurably in telling the ‘Sopwith zoo’ story.
For Shuttleworth’s chief engineer Jean-Michel Munn, now a very seasoned collection pilot himself, the Dove proved an important stepping-stone. Having sampled the Snipe, courtesy one of The Vintage Aviator Ltd’s examples, as his first rotary-engined mount, he then piloted G-EAGA before taking the helm of the Shuttleworth Pup — sometimes known jokingly as the ‘Sopwith Something’, he says, given its own mixed lineage. The obvious question, then: how do their flying characteristics stack up?
