Sopwith Camel

Dogfighting plane commonly used in WWI. Also, Snoopy's vehicle of choice for his fights with the Red Baron.

A little known, underrated band from the hippie days.

The few people who have heard of them believe that their ignominy is well deserved, because their Big Hit was the insipid pop ditty Hello Hello.

They tried harder, and did better (artistically, if not commercially) with their second album, The Miraculous Hump Returns From the Moon (Warner/Reprise - 1973). It is fairly listenable, and some of the songs contain lyrics that still resonate today. For instance:

From Astronaut Food
Astronaut food, for a minute I thought she was
Astronaut food, oh astronaut food
I'd hate to be mistaken for
Astronaut food.

As far as I know, they are the only band ever to successfully use both harmonica and sitar in the same song without creating an unbearable harmonic or cognitive dissonance.

Also the name of a groovy little computer game that I used to play on my XT back in the days. You had this little plane and you had to bomb these ships and these bunkers and bridges and stuff. The minesweeper of the early 80s.

The Sopwith F.1 Camel, successor to the Pup, was produced by the Sopwith Aviation Company and is one the few biplanes that the average person knows by name.

The Camel was the primary air defense vehicle for the European Allies, and from July 1917 to the end of World War I was responsible for the downing of over 1200 Axis planes.

The Camel was one of the two most maneuverable planes of the time, sharing this distinction with the German Fokker Triplane. But with that much power comes responsibility, and the Camel is credited with also killing more of its own pilots than any other plane in history. The engines used, which varied from a 110 HP Clerget to a 150 HP Bentley, had very unusual torque characteristics; in takeoff, applying full right rudder was required until the plane had attained speed, otherwise there was a very real chance the plane would be flipped around by the torque and head straight back into the ground.

Even today, due to its small size and overpowered engine, the Camel is still considered one of the 5 most maneuverable planes of all time, even outstripping the the venerable F-15 when it comes to maximum angle of climb.

The name 'Camel' comes from the plane have two 'Vickers' Machine guns, which the breaches of said guns enclosed in a camel-like 'hump' on the plane.