Published October 16, 2026 at 12:07 PM EDT

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During World War I, fighter planes called Sopwith Camels downed 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied fighter in WWI.

For those familiar with the Peanuts comics, it’s the plane that Snoopy flies in his fantasy sequences as a Flying Ace, a brave WWI pilot battling the Red Barron. And the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., has a rare surviving example of a Sopwith Camel airplane on view.

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong visits the museum to check it out.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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