Flyingboats Significant progress was made in naval flying in World War I. Three distinct categories of combat aircraft emerged: long-range overwater reconnaissance and antisubmarine aircraft operating from shore bases, shorter-range floatplane (so called because instead of wheeled undercarriages they floats to allow water landings) reconnaissance and fighter aircraft, and ship-borne aircraft. Long-range flying boats (so called because their fuselages were shaped like the hull of a boat) were used extensively by the British. These pioneered the technique of searching for submarines with methodical, mathematically developed search patterns. The French utilised…
Month: October 2021
GEORGES LEVY 40 HB2
Georges Levy 40 HB2 Avation Maritime’s distrust of triplane flying boats such as the Levy-Besson “Alerte” led the firm to design a version with the more traditional biplane wings, the Georges Levy 40 HB2. (“HB2” probably stood for Hydravion Bombardement with a crew of two.). With a 280hp Renault engine, the plane had good performance and it could carry larger bombs than other French flying boats. It entered service in November 1917. One hundred were ordered in France, and twelve were used by the US Navy. Though it was originally…
Lohner E
Lohner E The Lohner E was a reconnaissance flying boat built in Austria-Hungary during World War I. The “E” stood for Igo Etrich, one of the Lohner engineers. It was a conventional design for its day with biplane wings that featured slight sweepback, and an engine mounted pusher-fashion in the interplane gap. Its crew of two was seated in an open cockpit. Around 40 examples were built before production shifted to the more powerful L Plastic Kit Build Lohner E First flight: 10 November 1913 Number built: approximately 40 Crew:…
Aeromarine 40F
Aeromarine 40F The Aeromarine 40F was an American two-seat flying-boat training aircraft produced for the US Navy and built by the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company of Keyport, New Jersey. Fifty out of an original order for 200 were delivered before the end of World War I, with the remainder cancelled due to the armistice. The aircraft was a biplane with a pusher propeller. The pilot and instructor sat side by side. The Aeromarine 41 developed from the Aeromarine 40. At least some of the Model 40s were later converted…
Girls Being Called for Service
Bromley’s W.R.N.S. Cadets Young girls who are approaching the age when they will be called for the Service, and whose preference is given to the W.R.N.S., have formed themselves into the Girls’ Naval Training Corps., with headquarters at Bromley. Their uniform is a white blouse and dark skirt and a “Chic” sailor’s hat, and on parade they are a smart little group. The corps gives them the rudiments of the training required to fit them out as Wrens, under the supervision of Commander C.L.A. Woollard, R.N. Picture shows a smart…
Hansa-Brandenburg W.20
Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 The Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 was a German submarine-launched reconnaissance flying boat of the World War I era, designed and built by Hansa-Brandenburg. Due to the need to be stored and launched from a submarine aircraft carrier, the W.20 was a small single-seat biplane flying boat that was designed to be assembled and dismantled quickly. It had a slender hull on which was mounted a biplane wing and a conventional braced tailplane. It was powered by a seven-cylinder, 80 PS Oberursel U.0 rotary engine — basically a German-made near-clone of…
Macchi M.12
Macchi M.12 The Macchi M.12 was a flying boat bomber produced in small numbers in Italy in 1918. It had a conventional design generally similar to an enlarged version of other Macchi designs of the period and featured the Warren truss-style interplane struts that had been introduced on the Macchi M.9. A major difference however, was its twin-boom fuselage, each with a separate tailfin. The manufacturer Nieuport-Macchi, having acquired experience in seaplanes, began to study a new aircraft which he then offered to the Regia Marina under the designation of…
Grigorovitch M9
Grigorovitch M9 Also called ShCh M-9 or Shchetinin M-9 this Russian ww1 biplane flying boat was a development of the M-5, ready in the fall of 1915, which first flew on January 9, 1916 at Baku. By September 17, 1916, Jan Nagórski, test pilot, became the first to make a loop with a flying boat, worldwide. A good indicator of its agility and handling characteristics. The Grigorovitch M9 became the best-seller of the company, being produced by the hundreds (an estimated 500+) by Shchetinin up to the civil war. This…
Aircraft Project – WEEK 8
SELECTION OF ITALIAN AIRCRAFT Italy was at war in February 1915, swapping side of the entente almost at the last minute after some territorial promises. Previously due to its position just south of the Central powers, it was likely to fall in this side. Italy fought most of the war against Austria-Hungary on its northern, Alpine frontier, a harsh mountain war, but also the hilly north-east and the Venetian region, as well as the Adriatic. Naval aviation played an important part in these operations. Industrial capacities of Italy at that…
POMILIO GAMMA & GAMMA 1F
POMILIO GAMMA & GAMMA 1F The Pomilio Gamma was an Italian fighter prototype of 1918. The Pomilio company of Turin designed and manufactured the Gamma, a wooden, single-seat, single-bay biplane with wings of unequal span, the upper wing being of greater span than the lower. It was powered by a 149-kilowatt (200-horsepower) SPA 6A water-cooled engine driving a two-bladed tractor propeller. It had fixed, tailskid landing gear. The Gamma prototype first flew early in 1918. An Italian official commission observed a demonstration of it, and concluded that although it was…