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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0746.PDF
so April 1951 467 BRITISH NAVAL FLYING an outline history by H. F. KING, M.B.E. XTT7HATEVER the true beginning of British Naval Vy flying, the first event worth recording in the sketch now contemplated was an unpropitiously negative one—namely, the Admiralty's refusal to buy the proffered patents of the Wright brothers. This, it must be allowed, was in the year 1907, when only the Wrights themselves and the Brazilian Santos Dumont had accomplished sustained flight in heavier-than-air machines. The diffidence of the Lords of Admiralty in committing public funds is therefore understandable. There was, in any case, a well-reasoned inclination at this time towards the airship, for the exploits of the German Zeppelins were not passing unnoticed. In July, 1908, the Director of Naval Ordnance proposed to theFirst Sea Lord that a Naval Air Assistant be appointed; that the Superintendent of Ballooning be placed in close touch with theAdmiralty; and that a rigid airship, in the design of which Vickers Sons and Maxim, Ltd., should be consulted, be laid down forNaval use. In due time construction of No. 1 Rigid Naval Airship (dubbed Mayfly) was put in hand. To watch over her progress aspecial Admiralty branch was formed, with Capt. Murray Sueter, R.N. (later Rear Admiral), as Inspecting Captain of Aircraft andCdr. Oliver Schwann (later A.V-M. Swann) as Assistant Inspecting Captain. From the work of both these officers in subsequentappointments British Naval aviation was to benefit greatly. On the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, set up by theGovernment in 1909 to co-ordinate aeronautical effort in many fields, the Royal Navy was represented by Capt. R. H. S. Bacon,D.S.O. Admiralty interest in foreign technique caused a com- mission to be sent to France in 1910, with the dual object ofstudying French equipment and of attending the first Inter- national Conference on Aerial Law. A milestone in February, 1911, was the Admiralty's accep-tance of Mr. Francis McClean's offer to lend two of his private machines, free of charge, for the instruction of Naval officers.This same gentleman (now Lt.-Col. Sir Francis McClean) had leased his airfield at Eastchurch to the Royal Aero Club for arental of a shilling per annum, and here the sailors were to be taught. Mr. C. B. Cockburn became honorary instructor to thefour officers who eventually took the six weeks' course, and, for a fee of £20, payable to Short Brothers, Mr. Horace Short gavetechnical instruction. In The Story of a North Sea Air Station, Mr. Snowden Gamblequotes this extract from a letter, from Short Brothers to the Admiralty, concerning the arrangements : "We propose that they(the selected officers) should run round the ground without Short biplane, with flotation bags attached to the undercarriage, being hoisted aboard H.M.S. "Hibernia" in 1912. Wooden walls ano whirling rotors—0 Westland-Sikorsky Dragonfly demonstrates airjsea rescue in the very shadow of H.M.S. "Victory." attempting to rise for one or two practices, and then do a tewstraight-line flights. They could then practise turning in a radius of about 440 yards. No practice will take place for the first weekor two in winds of over 4 m.p.h. velocity." The Admiralty also made a stipulation—that no flying was to be done on Sundays. The first two officers to qualfiy were Lts. Samson and Long-more, R.N. It may be wondered how many of today's budding generation of Naval pilots, snug in their 450-m.p.h. Hawker SeaFury trainers, or 600-m.p.h. Meteor 7's, are aware that these officers were perched on a framework behind Cockburn with nocontrols whatever, but with a hand lightly resting upon the instructor's and with an eye on the rudder bar. Of the threeoriginal instructional machines (Shorts Nos. 26, 28 and 34) the two last-named were acquired by the Admiralty in October,1911. Other purchases followed. The soubriquets conferred on some of these early Naval trainers must be recorded. There wasThe Dud; the Vacuum Cleaner (the draught in the cockpit was alleged to pull the hairs out of a fur coat); Field Kitchen; TripleTwin (Short No. 39—the first twin-engined machine to fly in England); Triple Tractor, and Double Dirty. Seemingly thematelots were resolved to depart from traditional Naval nomen- clature; even so, their craft resembled the good ship HenriGrdce-a-Dieu under full sail rather than a Naval trainer otto-day. Late in 1911 Samson persuaded the Admiralty to draft twelveNaval ratings to Eastchurch as the nucleus of a Naval Flying School. The experiments of this little band were directed toadapting the aeroplane to Naval work, and Lt. Longmore and Mr. Oswald Short designed and tested flotation bags, by theaid of which Longmore successfully alighted on the Medway. As Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore he recalls in hismemoirs that, having wiped the spray off the engine, he flew the machine from the beach of the Isle of Grain and so back hometo Eastchurch. Lt. Samson obtained leave to build, in Chatham Dockyard, adouble trackway suitable for launching aircraft from the decks of ships, and during December, 1911, in the Short S.38 pusher, hemade a successful flight from such a platform on board H.M.S. Africa, riding at anchor at Sheerness. In addition to its wheelsthe Short had a pair of air bags which enabled it to alight on, but not to ascend from, the water. During May, 1912, the experimentwas repeated from H.M.S. Hibernia, steaming at 15 knots. The first ascent by a British seaplane was made at Barrow-in-Furness on November 18th, 1911, by Cdr. Schwann in an Avro biplane, with 35 h.p. Green engine. The floats were designed byCdr. Schwann and built by Naval personnel. Mr. S. V. Sippe, an
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