Among the aircraft on display at the Air Zoo Aerospace & Science Museum near Kalamazoo, Mich., is a beautiful hand-built Sopwith F.1 Camel reproduction. An extraordinary chain of events led to this highly accurate replica of one of the most famous fighters of World War I. Longtime Michigan resident A. Gordon Beatty, some of his family members and Kalamazoo Air Zoo restoration personnel spent decades on the project.
Camels have a remarkable place in aviation history. The aircraft was a state-of-the-art fighter when the British firm established by Sir