Please note that our logo is used on our website images only and does not appear on our products.
| You Cant Always Hide by Stan Stokes.
During WW I there were two successful designers of flying boats; the American Glen Hammond Curtiss and the Englishman John Cyril Porte. A flying boat differs from a seaplane in that a seaplane is a modified land-based aircraft, whereas a flying boat has the hull of a boat. Glen Curtiss had built the first U.S. designed seaplane and had introduced a flying boat in 1912. John Porte, who was born in 1883, had served with the Royal Navy for several years prior to dedicating himself to aviation. He went to America in 1913 to work with Curtiss. In 1913 a British publisher and aviation enthusiast, Lord Northcliffe, had established a $50,000 prize for the first to cross the Atlantic in a hydroaeroplane. Curtiss built an aircraft, the twin-engine America, for Rodman Wanamaker, the wealthy American department store owner that was supposed to challenge for the big prize. However, the design was ineffective, and a frustrating period of modifications was undertaken. When the Great War started Porte immediately returned to England accepting a commission in the Navy. He persuaded the Admiralty to purchase Curtiss flying boats, and he organized a group at the Felixstowe Naval Air Station to study flying boat design. The Curtiss H.12 Large America flying boat was flown out of Felixstowe and Great Yarmouth on anti-submarine and anti-Zeppelin patrols. The H.12 had an endurance of 6-hours, with a maximum speed of 85-MPH. During their patrol duties the H.12s sank three German submarines and downed two Zeppelins. Working closely with Curtiss, Portes work resulted in a superior hull design for a flying boat, and the use of more powerful engines. Named after the Naval Air Station where they were designed, this series of Felixstowe flying boats were superior machines. The most important of the designs was the F.2A that went into production in 1917. It was a twin-engine model with two powerful Rolls Royce engines. The F.2A had a top speed of 95-MPH and a ceiling of 10,000 feet. It could also stay aloft for up to ten hours with the use of extended tankage. Felixstowes would typically carry a pair of 230-pound bombs mounted under the lower wings. The aircraft was well armed with as many as four machine guns installed. The biggest of all the Felixstowe designs was the five-engine Fury, a 15-ton giant that appeared in 1918. The Flying boats proved their worth during WW I. They had victories against enemy U-boats, Zeppelins, and seaplanes. |