21 December 1913

The ideas of air-minded First Sea Lord W.S. Churchill could be worked on very quickly. In a minute dated 21 December 1913 to the Director of the Air Department, he asks for the construction of a Sopwith tractor biplane with a 100hp engine and side-by-side seating for the flying school at Eastchurch. The aeroplane was actually built by Sopwiths, appearing in its order book 24th December 1913, and described as a Land Tractor biplane Ds with a 100hp Gnome engine. It was given the RNAS serial number 149, and was known as the ’Sociable’, the ‘Tweenie’ or the ‘Churchill’.