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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1839.PDF
28 December 1956 1003 Short seaplane (735 h.p. Salmson), 7976. The torpedo was carried at a level midway between the bottomof the fuselage and the floats, and the float structure was so designed that the rear cross-bar could be removed to let thetorpedo fall freely. On the production Short 320s there were additional vee struts which ran from the floats to the lower wings. The Short 320 was flown from the rear cockpit, an arrange-ment which made the provision of effective defensive armament a matter of some difficulty. The ingenuity of the designer rose tothe occasion—and so, perforce, did the Short 320's hapless observer when he had to use his gun, for the gun ring wasmounted on struts which placed it level with the upper wing and he had to stand with his feet on the coaming of his cockpit.No doubt the fin and rudder were large enough to cope with the disruptive effect his body must have had on the slipstream.When the Short 320 was flown with a torpedo it was unable to lift an observer at the same time. Production of the Short 320 was on a modest scale, and onlyone other contractor (the Sunbeam Motor Car Co.) undertook its manufacture. Production aircraft became available in 1917.A long-range reconnaissance version of the Short 320 was also produced. As an alternative to the torpedo, it was fitted withextra tankage and bomb racks, and was used in small numbers as an anti-submarine patrol aircraft from home stations and inthe Mediterranean. Early in 1917, Commodore Murray Sueter was sent to Italyto command R.N.A.S. units there, with a particular view to making torpedo attacks on the Austrian fleet at Pola. He hadsuggested such an attack, together with a similar one on the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven, in a paper which he had sub-mitted to the Board of Admiralty in December 1916. When Com- modore Sueter was posted, an order for 25 Short 320s was placed;in February 1917 the establishment of the R.N.A.S. base at Otranto was to include 12, and two were to be sent to the torpedoschool at Malta. The aircraft reached Italy before the end of April 1917, and the R.N.A.S. units were re-organized and re-named No. 6 Wing under the command of Wing Commander C. H. K. Edmonds—the same Edmonds who had scored two ofthe Short 184's torpedo successes in 1915. Trials with torpedoes must have been made, for it is recorded in A.P.1344: — "Towards the middle of 1917, two cases of failure of the 310 Shortseaplane occurred in the Mediterranean. One of these occurred after releasing the torpedo, and when the pilot had climbed to a height of about1,000 feet the fuselage collapsed, and the pilot was killed. At the time, this was considered to be due to the blow caused by the splash of torpedoentry, on the under surface of the fuselage. It was, however, eventually discovered to be due to an unsatisfactory method of securing the fuselagebracing wires. The result of these accidents was most unfortunate, and discouraged the development of our torpedo aircraft. Training was,however, continued at Malta with two machines, 310 Short, under Lieut.-Commander Hardy."These accidents may have been the reason why the first attempt to use the Short 320s operationally with torpedoes was not made until September 2, 1917. Six machines—five carrying torpedoes, the other, bombs—were towed on rafts by motor launches to a point some fifty miles south of Traste Bay. Their intention was to torpedo enemy submarines lying off Cattaro, and their towed voyage was made because the load of petrol necessary for the machines to fly out and back from their base would have made it impossible for them to take off. But when the Shorts were in position, the wind rose to gale torceand heavy seas were running. Two pilots attempted to take off but were unsuccessful. The operation was abandoned; on the journeyback to Otranto one of the Shorts sank and the others were damaged Undaunted by this setback, Commodore Sueter askedfor more torpedo or bombing seaplanes, and followed that request with a memorandum dated September 20, 1917, in which hepressed for a more vigorous offensive against Austrian ports. The Admiralty agreed to increase the total establishment of Otrantoand Taranto to 80 seaplanes and landplanes, but it is doubtful whether that total was ever attained.What is certain is that the Short 320 never launched a toroedo in anger. Two were sent from Otranto in Manxman specially to attack the German cruiser Goeben while it lay helpless afterrunning aground south of Nagara, but they arrived too late, for Goeben freed herself and escaped before weather conditions weresuitable for the Shorts to attempt to take off. Because the attempts to use torpedo aircraft operationally hadproved abortive, there was little practical experience of the be- haviour of torpedoes dropped from aircraft. In February, 1918,therefore, four Short 320s were allocated to Calshot for torpedo experiments. Forty drops were made; three torpedoes were lost,two of them because the release gear functioned prematurely; and the results provided some useful information on the behaviourof torpedoes entering the water after being dropped from various heights and at various speeds. Until the Armistice the Short 320 served as a reconnaissanceseaplane. One example of the type was in service with the Imperial Japanese Navy; it may have been N.1485, which was sent therein 1918. The second type of Short seaplane to have the 310 h.p. SunbeamCossack was a big equal-span machine which resembled the Short 184 closely. It was, however, a completely new aircraft. Its upperwing was of constant chord (that of the 184 had slight inverse taper), its centre section was an open structure, the rear floatattachment was made by a strong vee strut (the Short 184 had two separate struts attached to either side of each float), and theengine cowling was much bulkier than that of the 184. The equal-span 310 h.p. Short was known as the Short 310 h.p.seaplane, Type B: the significance of the Type B suffix is not known, though it seems reasonable to think that it might havebeen intended to distinguish the aircraft from the Short 320. To its makers at least, the aircraft was also known as the NorthSea Scout. It may have been intended as an anti-Zeppelin aircraft, for itsprincipal weapon was a 5-pounder Davis gun which could be fired upwards at an acute angle. For its own defence the aircrafthad a Lewis gun. If the Davis gun were movable, the big Short had undoubted potentialities as an anti-submarine weapon, butthe Davis gun was officially abandoned. So too, apparently, was the North Sea Scout. The second batch of Short 320s ordered from Short Brotherswere numbered N.1300-N.1319 and had the works numbers S.344- S.363. In the works numbers sequence they were followed by aseaplane which was completely different from any of its pre- decessors. The Short S.364 was a small, compact two-seater ofremarkably clean appearance, powered by a 200 h.p. Sunbeam engine. A flat frontal radiator was fitted immediately behind thepropeller, and a single central exhaust stack led the gases up over the centre section. The two-bay wings were of equal span and hadelliptical tips; what was even more unusual about them was their rigid straight trailing edges, for all earlier Short seaplanes (exceptone variant of the 830) had wire trailing edges which produced the scalloped effect so characteristic of the firm's aircraft. The wingshad a large gap and could be folded. The neat fuselage terminated in a tail unit which was muchsmaller than any previously seen on a war-time Short seaplane. The small triangular fin was reminiscent of that of the pre-war Short74, and its outline was followed in the shape of the balanced rudder. The pilot sat directly under the centre section, and anappreciable distance separated his cockpit from the observer's, which was surmounted by a Scarff ring-mounting. Twin pontoonfloats, a wooden tail float with water rudder, and underwing air canisters were fitted. According to Short records the S.364 was tested in March 1917,but singularly little information about the machine has survived. Apparently it was known as the Short Scout, but no official desig-nation has survived; it is possible that it may have had the serial number N.36, but even that is uncertain. However it was styled, Short 320.
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