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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1759.PDF
14 December 1956 upper wings had king-post and cable bracing, and a deeper topdecking had been fitted about the cockpits. Meanwhile, another Short seaplane had appeared. This wasthe Short S.41, a two-seat tractor biplane powered by the 100 h.p. Gnome ten-cylinder two-row rotary. It has been said that theS.41 first appeared as a landplane and was later fitted with floats. That may well have been so, but its resemblance to the T.5tractor biplane may have led to a confusion of identities. Certainly it seems that no photographs of the S.41 as a landplane havesurvived. A Short S.41 was in service with the Navy in May 1912 and flewsuccessfully at the review of the Fleet which was held at Weymouth on May 8. During the exercises which followed the review,it was flown from the naval air station at Portland and, apparently, from the trackway on H.M.S. Hibernia, using a kind of trolleyunder the floats. An illustration in Flight of May 18, 1912, shows the S.41 and the modified S.27 No. 38 on Hibernia. The S.41 was essentially a very simple aeroplane and in generalconfiguration strongly resembled the original tractor landplane, but it could be distinguished from the seaplane version of T.5 byits twin-float undercarriage and uncovered centre section. The floats were simple pontoons, each with a single step, and therewere stabilizing air-bags under the lower wings; the tail was supported by a similar air-bag. The two-bay wings had squaretips, the lower mainplanes being cut off short at the outer inter- plane struts. The upper wings had strut-braced extensions, andthey alone were fitted with ailerons, single-acting surfaces which had no interconnecting balance cable and therefore hung downlimply when the aircraft was at rest. The slender fuselage was mounted at mid-gap between the wings, and the cowling of theengine was rudimentary. The angularity of the tail unit was in keeping with the appearance of the rest of the aircraft; therectangular tailplane was mounted on top of the upper longerons some way ahead of the sternpost. There was no fin, and the rudderwas a balanced surface. Construction was of wood throughout, cross-braced with wire and covered with fabric.Cdr. Samson flew the S.41 a good deal, and in June 1912 he succeeded in transmitting wireless messages from the aircraft offHarwich. The transmitter was a practice set of the type used in destroyers, and the messages were received at distances ofthree, four and, occasionally, ten miles. Two months later, Lt. Raymond Fitzmaurice, R.N., was placed in charge of all wirelessexperiments connected with naval aircraft. In October 1912 the original S.41 was at Carlingnose on theFirth of Forth, where it was again flown by Cdr. Samson. By that time it had acquired the official serial number 10. In 1913 two more Short seaplanes were delivered to the NavalWing; they had the official serial numbers 20 and 21. These aircraft had the 100 h.p. Gnome and were also known as S.41s.To the original S.41 they bore a resemblance which, in those days when standardization was unknown, was strong enough to justifythe retention of the designation. On Nos. 20 and 21 the con- struction of the wings differed in detail: the extensions were bracedfrom king-posts, double-acting ailerons and a large rudder were fitted, the floats had no steps, and the outboard stabilizing floatswere under the extreme tips of the lower wings. All the floats had several watertight compartments, and the tail float was fittedwith a water rudder. The pilot sat in the front seat, and the rear cockpit could accommodate two passengers.The Short seaplane No. 20 was in service with the R.F.C. Naval Wing in May 1913. In that month it was the vehicle fortests of the Rouzet wireless telegraphy apparatus, a transmitter which was a great advance over the set which had been fitted tothe original Short S.41 during the previous year. M. Lucien Rouzet was the engineer at the Eiffel Tower wireless station. In1912 he designed a W/T transmitter which was more compact and considerably lighter than any other apparatus which had beenmade up to that time: it weighed only 70 lb. Lt. Fitzmaurice was permitted to go to Paris to examine theRouzet set. He realized at once that it was admirably suited to installation in aircraft; it had in fact been successfully tried ina French aeroplane. The Admiralty bought four, and M. Rouzet agreed to come to England to assist in making the first installation in an aircraft. Lt. Fitzmaurice has recorded that the Rouzettransmitter was first fitted to "one experimental twin-propeller machine which no one liked; this machine was, however, the onlypossible one to which an apparatus could be fitted, and even then it had to be fixed on a platform outside the fuselage andstreamlined in." The aircraft in question may have been the Short Double Twin. The trials of the Rouzet set were successful,and clear signals were received at distances of up to 20 miles; on one occasion a destroyer 45 miles away picked up the aircraft'ssignals. The Short No. 20 was flown by Sub-Lt. J. T. Babington duringthe trials of its Rouzet set. It was then based at the Isle of Grain. When the royal yacht brought the King back from Flushing No. 20formed part of the escort. On meeting the yacht, the aircraft sent a W/T message in salutation: that was the first occasion onwhich a British monarch received a salute by W/T from an aircraft. The R.N.A.S. station at Grain maintained wireless contact withthe seaplane throughout, even when it was 50 miles away. Immediately after these trials, No. 20 was sent to the R.N.A.S.station at Great Yarmouth, whence it participated in the naval manoeuvres of 1913. On July 23 and 26 heavy surf made itextremely difficult to beach the seaplane. The wooden pontoon floats of those early seaplanes were frail structures; consequentlythe aircraft had to be handled with the greatest skill and care. Nor was beaching the only difficulty attending the operation ofthe Short, for one of the ratings of Great Yarmouth air station recorded this heartfelt note: "No. 20 occasionally flew, but No. 29[a Maurice Farman seaplane] hardly ever. To start No. 20 up was a feat of strength and was rarely accomplished in a short time." Launching and beaching the seaplanes presented so many dif-ficulties that some of the officers at Great Yarmouth set about the development of a form of beaching gear. Lt-Cdr. R. Gregoryand Eng-Lt. E. W. Riley collaborated with Mr. White, an official of Chatham Dockyard, to produce a device which had the resound-ing name of the "G.R.W. wheel float attachment": the initials (Top) T.5 floatplane with triple- float undercarriage. (Above) Close-up of the floatplane. T.5 (Left) The original S.41, dis- tinguishable from the T.5 by its twin-float undercarriage.
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