'I have to design it simple or I can't understand it myself'

摘要

Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, international sportsman and prize-winning aviator, founded his School of Flying at Brooklands near Weybridge, Surrey, in February 1912. Parallel to offering flying instruction, he rented No 1 Shed, situated inside the oval motor racing track. There he and a former motor mechanic, Fred Sigrist, designed the Hybrid aeroplane, based partly on adaptation of the Wright brothers' wing construction. On 12 October that year, they sold it to the Admiralty for £900 and the embryonic Sopwith Aviation Company took shape, being formally established the following year, the modified Hybrid now costing £1,185.