High Over the Western Front
by Robert Taylor
The Royal Air Force was formed on 1st. April 1918 when the British Army’s Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service amalgamated to form the world’s first independent air force. From that date until the end of hostilities, the RAF fought with great distinction over the Western Front. By November 1918 it was the largest and most powerful air force in the world with nearly 23,000 aircraft and 290,000 personnel. To remember the Royal Air Force’s long and illustrious century of service, Robert Taylor, long admired as the world’s premier aviation artist, has created this highly detailed graphite work ‘High Over the Western Front’ that takes us back to the year the RAF was formed, 1918. Featuring the most successful British fighter of World War I, Robert’s stunning colour-enhanced artwork depicts Sopwith Camels of the newly- established RAF on patrol over the Western Front in support of the successful Allied response to the German Spring Offensive of 1918. |
| Overall size: 18½" x 23" | Available in the following editions |
| 25 | Collectors edition | Signed and titled by the artist - matted with Sopwith and Bottrell signatures - SOLD OUT | $695 |
| Original signatures & WWI aircraft material |
| Each print in this highly-restricted edition is hand signed and personally titled by artist Robert Taylor and is issued matted to full conservation standards to include an original fragment of WWI aircraft fabric and the fully-authenticated signatures of two famous First World War aviators. |
| The Signatures | |
 Sir Thomas Sopwith |
Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith was born in Kensington, London on 18 January 1888. He became interested in flying after seeing John Moisant flying the first cross-Channel passenger flight. His first flight was with Gustave Blondeau in a Farman at Brooklands. He soon taught himself to fly on a Howard Wright Avis monoplane and took to the air on his own for the first time on 22 October 1910. He crashed after travelling about 300 yards, but soon improved, and on 22 November was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviation Certificate No. 31, flying a Howard Wright 1910 Biplane. On 18 December 1910, Sopwith won a £4000 prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British-built aeroplane, flying 169 miles in 3 hours 40 minutes. He used the winnings to set up the Sopwith School of Flying at Brooklands. In June 1912 Sopwith with Fred Sigrist and others set up the Sopwith Aviation Company, initially at Brooklands. On 24 October 1912 using a Wright Model B completely rebuilt by Sopwith and fitted with an ABC 40 hp engine, Harry Hawker took the British Michelin Endurance prize with a flight of 8h 23m. Sopwith Aviation got its first military aircraft order in November 1912, and in December moved to larger premisies in Kingston upon Thames. |
The company produced more than 18,000 aircraft for the allied forces during WWI, including 5747 of the Sopwith Camel single-seat fighter. Sopwith was awarded the CBE in 1918. Bankrupted after the war by punitive anti-profiteering taxes, he re-entered the aviation business a few years later with a new firm named after his chief engineer and test pilot, Harry Hawker. Sopwith became chairman of the new firm, Hawker Aircraft. After the nationalisation of the aviation interests of what was by then Hawker Siddeley, he continued to work as a consultant to the company until 1980. He became a Knight Bachelor in 1953. Sopwith's 100th birthday was marked by a flypast of military aircraft over his home. He died in Hampshire on 27 January 1989, aged 101. |
|
 Henry Bottrell |
A pilot on 91 sorties over the Western Front during WWI with No. 8 Naval Squadron who later |
 |
Receive your print fully framed and ready to display. Please call or email us for a custom framing quote. |