Roden 411 Sopwith 1.B1 French Bomber 1:48

The Sopwith 1½ Strutter appeared in the middle of 1916, and right after that the French Military Command became very interested in this new British development, since the French Air Force mostly had obsolete Farman and Breguet types in service. Agreement for license production of Sopwith 1½ Strutter was quickly reached; however, due to the slow speed of development, the type was not appearing in great quantity, and in the beginning France purchased 1½ Strutters produced in Great Britain.

By the end of 1916 the following companies were involved in production of the plane: Hanriot, Morane-Saulnier, Salmson, Nieuport and some others. In spite of the fact that all of these companies had developed similar aircraft of their own, they had to produce the 1½ Strutter, which now had the type names Sopwith 1.B1 (one-seat version) and Sopwith 1.B2 (two-seat version). French manufacturers managed to build about four thousand aircraft of both versions in quite a short period of time (until autumn 1917).