Evening All,
I am very interested in early aviation history so when a couple of years ago I was visiting Eastchurch Aviation Museum on Sheppey in Kent, the original home of Short Brothers Aeroplane Company, I was intrigued by this photograph taken in 1912 probably at Sheerness a couple of miles away:
[
THE ROYAL NAVAL AIR SERVICE PRIOR TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR. © IWM (Q 67864) IWM Non Commercial License
It shows a launch ramp on HMS Hibernia with a Short S 38 biplane. What, I wondered, was that about?
To keep the post readable I will first describe the Short S38 and in a second post the events concerning the first launch of an aircraft from a moving ship.
The Short S38The S38 was one of a number of biplanes of the Farman-Sommer type built by the Short brothers in 1910 and 1911. They had been designed by H. Short with R Sommer based on an Henri Farman boxkite design, and were notable for the good handling qualities and robust construction. They were flown by several pilots in the Royal Aero Club including F. McClean and C. Grace. The engines fitted varied at first, but it was found that the 50 hp and 60 hp Gnome engines gave the aircraft a very good performance.
The aircraft chosen for the experiments launching aircraft from a moving ship was the Short S 38. It was chosen because it was one of two aeroplanes which had been bought by the British Admiralty from Frank McClean, a keen early aero-enthusiast and one of the founder members of the Aero Club of Great Britain (later the Royal Aero Club). The Short brothers factory was at Eastchurch in Kent and shared the airfield with the owners - the Royal Aero Club. The British Admiralty had established a flying school for naval pilots at the same site and it became a centre for experimentation with aircraft and their potential use for naval purposes.
The Short Farman-Sommer aircraft were found to have superior handling qualities to the earlier Wright designs and in addition were of lighter and more robust construction. Several machines were built and modified for experiments with different engines, and in one case, two engines. They were also used for aero-displays around the country and for endurance flights.
Early machines were single seat, but later examples had a second seat either behind the pilot (as in the S38), or in tandem which made the latter highly suitable for pilot training. Three were bought by the British Navy and used for endurance trials: S 28 flew over 4000 miles, 2 34 flew over 3000 miles and S 38 over 2000 miles for a total repair bill of £25.
Although these aircraft were very successful by the standards of the day they had become worn out and obsolete by the outbreak of war in 1914 and none saw wartime service. However they were very important because they gave naval pilots invaluable flying experience and allowed the Short brothers to experiment with different aerodynamic designs and engines, and in doing so made significant contributions to the knowledge of aeronautical engineering.
The model shows the floats which were attached to the machine for flotation trials and subsequent launches from HMS Africa and HMS Hibernia in 1911 and 1912 which I describe in a different post.
Thanks for looking.
Stephen.
