Sopwith Triplane Typhoon

Clutton Fred

For a description of the format and data included in Production Tables, see here.

Contents

Type Description
Production Details

Type Description

  • FRED Srs.1
  • Single-seat light parasol-wing aircraft for amateur construction, designed to be towed behind a car without a trailer. The wings are of spruce and plywood structure with a torsion-box leading-edge, auxiliary rear spar and drag spar, and fabric covering. Non-differential ailerons are fitted but there are no flaps or trim tabs. The prototypes wings could be removed and fitted along the fuselage sides for storage. The aircraft is a semi-cantilever design, with wings cantilevered from a fixed centre section, which means that the apparent lift wires do not take lift loads, but are simply drag and anti-drag wires. Neither are they wires, but quarter-inch steel rods. The fuselage structure is of spruce longerons, plywood covered to the rear of the cockpit, except for an aluminium top deck, with the rear fuselage a Warren girder structure, fabric covered with plywood top decking, with the front portion being removable for access to the baggage compartment.. One 27 h.p. [500 cc] converted Triumph [5T] motorcycle engine. This engine was replaced by a Scott A2S engine, and later, in 1966, by a converted American-built Lawrance APU radial engine. In 1968 it was converted to a Srs. 2 with a Volkswagen four-cylinder conversion. Later again a 50 h.p. Franklin 4AC-150 engine with a fixed-pitch propeller was fitted.
  • FRED Srs.2
  • As Series 1, fitted with steel-spring shock absorbers in place of the original bungee-in-tension, for better field operation. The wings were now made foldable rather than removable. Fitted with a Clutton-converted 66 h.p. Volkswagen four-cylinder powerplant, modified by with a 2:1 ratio reduction belt to drive the propeller at half engine speed.

FRED Srs.2 Specification
Span Length Height Wing Area Empty Wt Max AUW Cruise Speed Maximum Speed Range Service Ceiling
22 ft 6 in 17 ft 6 ft 110 sq ft 533 lb 773 lb 63 mph/ 55 kn 75 mph/ 65 kn 200 mi
6.86 m 5.18 m 1.83 m 10.22 m2 242 kg 351 kg 101 kph 121 kph 322 km

  • FRED Srs.3
  • As Series 2, fitted with a 65 h.p. Continental A65.

Production Details

C/n Initial
Registration
Type Notes
53 aircraft built by amateur contructors as noted.
PFA 1311 and EC/ES/1A G-ASZY Srs.1 Prototype. To Eric Clutton and Ernest William Sherry. Converted to a Srs.2 and registered to Eric Clutton and Albert John Frederick Tabenor in March 1966. To NX4499Y.
PFA 1528 G-BDBF Srs.2 To William Morrell, Mount Bures, Bures, April 1975.
PFA 1551/DLW.1 G-BBBW Srs.2 To Donald Webster, Ilkley, June 1973.
123 G-CDBL Srs.2 To David Branton Limbert, Bradford, October 1978.
FGH-001 G-BRGH Srs.2 To Fred Geoffrey Hallam, Wythenshawe, Manchester, October 1978.
PEB/04 G-PFAB Srs.2 To Patrick Barker, Green End Rd, Bedfordshire, September 1978.
WR1 G-PFAM Srs.2 To William Rigbym Horwich, Bolton, December 1978.
PFA 029-10121 G-RONW Srs.2 To Peter Gronow, Carmarthen, December 1978.
PFA 029-10141/LAS.1803 G-BDSA Srs.2 To Richard Yates, Wyberton, Boston, February 1976. To EI-BFS October 1978.
PFA 029-10208 G-BKEY Srs.3 To Geoffrey Stephen Taylor, Kidderminsterr, May 1932.
PFA 029-10243 G-PFAL Srs.2 To Anthony Troughton, Woodview, Co Armagh, built by H Pugh, November 1978.
PFA 029-10261 G-BGFF Srs.2 To George Richard Gordon Smith, Ludlow, December1978.
PFA 029-10267 G-BJCM Srs.2 To John Carey Miller, Coventry, West Midlands, September 1978.
PFA 029-10274 G-BPAV Srs.2 To Peter Anthony Valentine, Uxbridge, November 1978.
PFA 029-10296 G-BMMF Srs.2 To John Michael Jones, Castle Cary, February 1986.
PFA 029-10309 G-PFAC Srs.2 To Richard Bennett, Ampthill, September 1978.
PFA 029-10310 G-PFAF Srs.2 To Kenneth Fern, Scholar Green, Stoke-on-Trent, October 1978.
PFA 029-10321 G-OLVR Srs.2 To Anthony Oliver, Sewards End, Saffron Walden, November 1978.
PFA 029-10322 G-BMAX Srs.2 To Peter Cawkwell, Bingley, December 1978.
PFA 029-10324 G-BGAH Srs.2 To Graham Allen Harris, Denham, Uxbridge, February 1978.
PFA 029-10327 G-MANX Srs.2 To Steven Styles, Lydiate Ash, Bromsgrove, August 1997.
PFA 029-10331 G-WICH Srs.2 To Robert Hearn, Southminster, Essex, but registrant moved to Australia. cld 2 Septembe.1991. Completed by Leslie Tomlinson, Billericay October 2008.
PFA 029-10337 G-BKAF Srs.2 To Leslie George Millen, Sittingbourne, March 1982.
PFA 029-10339 G-FRED Srs.2 To Roger Cox, Leeds, May 1978.
PFA 029-10369 G-BITK Srs.2 To Bernard John Miles, Northampton, March 1981.
PFA 029-10390 G-USTY Srs.3 To Steven Styles, Birmingham, October 1978.
PFA 029-10396 G-JBUS Srs.2 To R.V. Joyce Trustee of: The John Bunyan Upper School Flying Group, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, June 1978.
PFA 029-10417 G-PFAX Srs.2 To Andrew Dunstan, Oxford, December 1978.
PFA 029-10434 G-HOUL Srs.2 To Donald Murdock Macgillivray Richardson, Harnage, Shropshire, December 1978
PFA 029-10445 G-BGHZ Srs.2 To Albert Gurney Edwards, Darlington, December 1979.
PFA 029-10558 G-BTCO Srs.2 To Ivan Phillip Manley, Chichester, January 1991.
PFA 029-10559 G-BLNO Srs.3 To Leslie William Smith, Sale, October 1984.
PFA 029-10586 and CA.1 G-BJAD Srs.2 To Clifford Allison, Retford, June 1981.
PFA 029-10650 G-BKDP Srs.3 To Maurice Whittaker, Essington, Wolverhampton, June 1982.
PFA 029-10675 and RAC.01-224 G-BISG Srs.3 To Richard Allan Coombe, Lymington, March 1981.
PFA 029-10676 G-BOLS Srs.2 To Richard John Goodburn, Melton Mowbray, January 1988.
PFA 029-10715 G-BKZT Srs.2 To Anthony Edward Morris, Bagshot, October 1983.
PFA 029-10727 G-BNZR Srs.2 To Robert Mervyn Waugh, Belfast, November 1937.
PFA 029-10753 G-BSSJ Srs.2 To Roger Fife Jopling, Barnard Castle, August 1990. To New Zealand as ZK-RSJ, November 2000.
PFA 029-10767 G-BJWK Srs.2 To Michael William Boulton, Christchurch, Dorset, February 1982.
PFA 029-10770 G-BMOO Srs.2 To Neil Purllant, Upwood, Ramsey, Huntingdon, April 1986.
PFA 029-10775 G-BYLA Srs.3 To Robert Holden-Rushworth, Devizes, May 1999.
PFA 029-10791 G-BKVF Srs.3 To Nigel Eric Johnson, Kettering, July 1983.
PFA 029-10858 G-CMAY Srs.2 To Michael Gordon Dolphin and Mark John Sharp, Grantham, June 2021
PFA 029-10882 G-CGUI Srs.2 To Ian Pearson, Falmouth, February 2011
PFA 029-10947 G-BVCO Srs.2 To Iain William Bremner, Dornoch, August 1993.
PFA 029-10959 G-BWAP Srs.3 To Robert John Smyth, York, March 1995.
PFA 029-11002 G-ORAS Srs.2 To Alister Sutherland, Edderton, Tain, June 2001.
PFA 029-11142 G-BMSL Srs.3 To Alexander Charles Combe, North Littleton, Evesham, May 1986.
AACA 279 ZK-FRD Srs.2 To Alan and Evan Belworthy, Masterton, New Zealand, late 1970s.
AACA 361 ZL-ELJ Srs.2 To Alex Armstrong, Dunedin, New Zealand, September 1980. To ZK-LXA June 1988.
unknown unknown Srs.2 Completed in Australia in 1998.
unknown unknown Srs.2 Construction begun following the receipt of a British kit by Brian Floate of Bundaberg, QLD, in 2013.
Total Production  53

Production Summary

All Aircraft By Series
Type Built New Conv Canc'd Total
FRED Srs.1 1 1
FRED Srs.2 43 (1) 44
FRED Srs.3 9 9
53 (1) 0

Production References

  1. British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 2, A.J. Jackson (Putnam, 2nd Ed., 1973)
  2. British Homebuilt Aircraft since 1920, Ken Ellis (Merseyside Aviation Society, 1975)
  3. British Private Aircraft 1946-1970, Volume 2, Arthur W.J.G. Ord-Hume (Mushroom Model Publications, 2013)
  4. https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2010/10/clutton-tabenor-freds-of-new-zealand.html
  5. https://www.airport-data.com/search/search2.html?field=model&search=Search&code=Clutton-Tabenor%20Fred%20Series%203
  6. https://aeropedia.com.au/content/clutton-fred/
  7. https://cluttonfred.info/
  8. http://www.caa.co.uk
  9. http://www.peterandsusan.co.uk/laa/