In 1913, the American company "Curtiss" founded a subsidiary company "White & Thompson" in the UK, which was engaged in the promotion of flying boats to the English market. The company's test pilot was Englishman John Porte, who worked closely with Curtiss in preparing a non-stop flight across the Atlantic on his flying boat, named "America". The outbreak of war prevented the implementation of this project. Porte joined the naval aviation and was sent to America to purchase Curtiss H-4 flying boats. After returning in 1915 In England, he was appointed commander of the British Navy Air Base in Felixstowe. The extensive experience of a naval pilot allowed the Port to take up the development of a flying boat of its own design, called the Felixstowe F.1. However, only the single-edged hull of the boat was new. Porte took the wing and tail from the Curtiss H-4 seaplane. The Felixstowe F.1 was equipped with two Hispano-Suiza engines.
The documentation for the F.1 was transferred to the Curtiss company, where the project was improved and put into serial production with Curtiss engines (160 hp) under the designation H-8 "Big America". In 1916, 50 such flying boats were purchased by Great Britain. The engine power was insufficient, and Porte decided to install new 12-cylinder V-shaped liquid-cooled Rolls-Royce Eagle I engines (250 hp) on the H-8. This variant was named H-12. However, the boat performed poorly in the conditions of the North Sea, and Porte designed a new two-edged hull, as well as modified the tail. The wings and engines remained the same as the H-12. The flight characteristics of the boat have increased significantly. The F variant was mass - produced .2A with Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines (355 hp). Modification of Felixstowe F.The 2C had a lightweight body and Rolls-Royce Eagle II engines (275 hp), which were later replaced by Rolls-Royce Eagle VI (322 hp). This flying boat had excellent flight data, but it was not launched into the series.
Felixstowe F. Aircraft2A were used for long-range reconnaissance, anti-submarine patrols and as a multi-seat coast guard fighter. On July 4, 1918, Captain Pattison, piloting the F.2A, managed to shoot down the German naval airship L 62 over Heligoland.
An enlarged version of the F.2 with two engines Sunbeam "Kossak" (330 hp) or Rolls-Royce "Eagle VIII" was flown in February 1917 and received the designation Felixstowe F.3. The bomb load has doubled. The design of the flying boat turned out to be successful, although the speed was considered insufficient, so the aircraft was mainly used for anti-submarine patrols. Aircraft F.3 were also produced by the companies "Short" and "Phoenix". Until the end of the war, about 100 machines were manufactured, which were used in the Mediterranean. Subsequently, many flying boats of the Felixstowe F.3 were converted into the following (post-war) modification of the F.5, which was similar in design to the F.2.
The Felixstowe F.2 was an entire class of British flying boats of 1917, designed and developed by Lieutenant Commander John Cyril Port R.N. at the Naval Air Base in Felixstowe during the First world War II.
Adapting an enlarged version of the excellent Felixstowe F.1 hull design, combining it with the design of the larger Curtiss H-12 flying boat.
The Felixstowe hull had excellent water contact characteristics and subsequently became a key base technology in most British seaplane designs. (Wikipedia)
About the construction site:
Despite its age, the set is very well assembled. I didn't have to run or fix it. Separately, I would like to note the detailing of the engines-at a height! I made all the "insides" of the boat myself, the instructions for assembling
the 1/32 Wingnut Wings model helped me a lot. Imitated a plank set of the bottom of the boat using a masken tape.
Having studied in detail (as much as possible) the original photo, I found some inaccuracies in the instructions
Roden:
1. There were no cockades on the lower surfaces of the upper wings.
2. There were no drawings on the floats.
3. Only after the second redan the color was red, before it everything was not painted, varnished with wood.
4. The drawing in the area of machine gun ports on both sides of the fuselage is not correct.
In addition to the set, I used a set of etching from "Brengun" and part of the set from "Part" and decals from "AIMS",
turrets and machine guns "Mini world".
Vallejo coloring and oil paints, braces- "EZline".
Link to the construction site:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13055.0Thanks.
