Belgian Wings
Belgian Air Force, past and present.
The Aeronautical Reference Site - De Luchtvaart Referentie Site - Le site référence de l'Aéronautique
Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe
Single engine single seat fighter aircraft
On 28 January 1922, Handley Page Ltd (HP) owned Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe G-EBBE (former RFC/RAF: J461?) was flown from Croydon (U.K.) to Brussels and successively sold to the Belgian Government on 2 March 1922. The aircraft officially was registered with the Belgian Air Service but any further trace has not been discovered for the moment. It is assumed that the machine was used for evaluation purposes which finally led to the acquisition of the Nieuport Delage NiD.29.
According to researcher Chaz Boyer the last shipment of Camels to the Belgian Air Service included two Sopwith Snipes (Boulton Paul built - late 1918) with serials E6317 and E6319. Most probably these aircraft were delivered after November 1918 and were never used by the Belgian forces and dismantled later on.
As no pictures of a Snipe in Belgian Military colors are available for the moment this datafile was illustrated with an image of E8082 an original Snipe on display at the National Air and Space Museum at Washington (USA).