Possibly THE Sopwith Camel below the R33 airship.

The R33 Airship.

On the 5th March 1920 the airship R33 set out from Pulham and flew to Howden Air Station, East Yorkshire. It was then to carry out an experiment which was to release a pilotless Sopwith Camel from beneath the airship and it be allowed to crash to test a new self-sealing rubber lined fuel tank. The aircrafts engine was started and left running below the airship. Over a remote area of the North Yorkshire Moors the aircraft was released from the airships keel corridor. The aircraft made a powerful descent and crashed onto the Moors, at an unknown location from 1,500 feet. No fire developed in the wreckage but whether this was because of the new tank or good luck is not known. The experiment was not repeated and R33 airship returned to Pulham. The credit goes to my friend, Brian Turpin.

No Pilot.

Jim Rutland informs me that some time before this recorded incident, in Summer 1918, dummy drops took place prior to some live-piloted drops of aircraft from the R23 airship. His information states that ""Two aircraft were involved in the live drops, N6814 (in the photo above) and N6622. The pilots involved with the live drops were Major I C Little and Capt. Crook. R-33 was later involved in the same tests but according to the article D.H.53 Humming Birds J7325 and J7326 were involved at first and later a pair of Gloster Grebes J7400 and J7385 were used."" If this is the case then the aircraft which was dropped on the Moors could have been one of these latter ones and actually not a Sopwith Camel.

I have no information regarding where the aircraft crashed, a small crater could remain at the site, however, I doubt any wreckage will remain so long after the incident.