Beginnings
Taking off on water
In the pioneer period of flight, aircraft engines were
not considered the most reliable and if a hasty landing was
the answer to this, a ditching into water was a softer option than
on land. Flying boats were being developed worldwide. Southampton
Water and the surrounding area had a large part to play in
Britain’s history of marine aviation and in the founding of the
first British national airline. ![[2757] Town Quay And Flying Boat](/images/2757-400_tcm4-60613.jpg "[2757] Town Quay And Flying Boat")
 Flying boat
and Town Quay |
Manufacture of
aircraft in the South began seriously in the shipyards. In 1913 two
shipbuilding firms at Cowes on the Isle of Wight produced the first
significant developments in floatplanes and exhibited them at the
Olympia Aero Show that same year. The manager of John Samuel White
boat builders, Edwin Carnt, set up an aircraft department and hired
Howard T.Wright to design a seaplane. The first plane produced was
a large two-seater biplane on floats. Although it crashed and sank
on the first flight this was due to the inexperienced pilot, namely
the designer, rather than any fault in construction. It was quickly
rebuilt to be displayed at the exhibition at Olympia.
S.E. Saunders Ltd, another Isle of Wight boatbuilding firm also
became interested in aviation. Saunders already had a reputation
for building fast hydroplane motorboats, the company developed and
patented a method of laminating wooden boat hulls to keep them
waterproof. The innovation proved useful for producing watertight
flying boat hulls. One of their first designs was
the 'Bat Boat', an air-sea hybrid built in
partnership with Sopwith Aviation Co Ltd. In 1914, as a result of the
successful collaboration Thomas Sopwith decided to open a small
department on the banks of the River Itchen at
Woolston in Southampton to carry on the maritime side of his
aviation business. This however only lasted a few
years. By 1916 he had returned to concentrating on land
planes and the works at Woolston were used by
another company. S.E.
Saunders continued to produce hulls for flying boats but this
new field of engineering was growing out of the shipyards
to become a separate industry. It was another local
company called Supermarine, that took marine aviation on to new
heights and gained an international reputation for the
aircraft it produced.
|
