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Ramblings Over the Front

The Tommy

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I took a few hours away from work last week to make a quick jaunt to the National Museum of the United States Air Force. My job is extremely busy during the holiday season (I am a director in an online retail call center with twenty-one different companies) and there are times I just need to break away. What would calm my soul? A visit to the Early Years Gallery at the museum!

I snapped several pictures while in the gallery, trying to get all "artsy" with my camera angles and what not, and made certain to get a few shots of the Thomas-Morse Scout. (you can see the full gallery HERE) The Tommy is such a beautiful single seater, and one can definitely see the Sopwith influences in her design. However the Tommy on display at the museum is mounted high on a display top, not allowing good access for some of those artsy shots I like to take.



The Tommy was an advanced trainer (it had been designed as a front line fighter aircraft, but upon evaluation failed in that aspect). It boasted a 110 horsepower Gnome rotary engine (in the B Model) and had solid maneuverability. The Tommy did have some shortcomings as well. She was difficult to handle on take off and landing, and the rotary engine had to either at full power or be "blipped" on and off to control speed, much like the Nieuport N.28. The C model was given an 80 horsepower Gnome rotary, which was later replaced with an 80 horsepower Le Rhone.



The Tommy was first flown in June, 1917. Just over one hundred B models were built (100 for the Army and another 10 for the U.S. Navy). 97 of the C model were completed, the rest of the orders were cancelled due to the armistice.



The version at the museum is an S-4C. The C model cost $5,400 each, had a top speed of 97 miles per hour, a ceiling of 15,000 feet, and could be fitted with a single .30 caliber Marlin machinegun, which were also used on the Nieuport N.28.



While the Tommy was a fairly popular plane after the war (used for racing and several air combat motion pictures), there is not a lot of current information in publication nearly one hundred years later. From time to time copies of the 1966 Profile Publications Profile (Number 68) can be found, but other than websites that mostly regurgitate the information found within its pages, there isn't much us out there for the modern day history buff. Here are two websites though to whet to your interest a bit:

WikiPedia
Fiddlers Green

UPDATE - The museum has on display in the main lobby a wonderful scale model of the Tommy. See the .

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Comments

  1. Blackronin's Avatar
    Thanks for this.
    Excellent informations.
  2. Flying Officer Kyte's Avatar
    That is great thanks.
    Rob.
  3. MoonSylver's Avatar
    Very nice pics & information! This is a plane I totally overlooked on my visit there. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
  4. Captain Chum's Avatar
    Nice entry, like the write up and really like the pictures...Thanks!