Britain - 1913 Avro 501

Early British Military Seaplanes

By 1913 The idea of aircraft designed for military use had firmly taken hold. The needs of different branches of nation's military service were being identified. These needs were reflected in requests for specific operational capability requirements to design firms. In Britain the Naval Admiralty saw the need for a way to project air power into service as the eyes of the fleet far from land. A.V. Roe & Company was eager to help fill the void with their company's designs.

The Avro Type H, Type 501, and Type 503 were a family of early British military seaplanes. They were a development of the Avro 500 design and were originally conceived of as amphibious; the prototype being fitted with a single large main float (equipped with wheels) under the fuselage, and two outrigger floats under the wings. Tests were conducted on Lake Windermere in January 1913. It was later converted to twin-float configuration and bought by the British Admiralty. It now, however, proved too heavy and was converted again - this time to a land plane.

An improved version, designated the 503 was demonstrated for the Inspector of Naval Aircraft, who placed an order for three machines. The prototype itself was demonstrated for the German Navy in its seaplane trials in June 1913 and was purchased by the government of Imperial Germany for evaluation purposes. This machine subsequently became the first aircraft to fly across the North Sea, from Wilhelmshaven to Heligoland, in September 1913. Gotha purchased a licence from Avro and produced the type as the WD.1 (Wasser Doppeldecker - "Water Biplane"). Unlicenced copies were also built by Albatros, AGO, Friedrichshafen. Some WD.1s were provided to the Ottoman Empire following their withdrawal from German Navy service.

References

1. "Avro 501". (2011, January 22). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 04:57, January 31, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avro_501&oldid=409396299
2. Jackson, A.J. (1990)." Avro Aircraft since 1908" (Second ed.), p. 51. London: Putnam. ISBN 0 -85177-834-8.
3. Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). "Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation". London: Studio Editions. pp. 91.
4. "World Aircraft Information Files". London: Bright Star Publishing. pp. File 889 Sheet 93.

Russia - 1913 Grigorovich M-1

From Humble Beginnings

Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich was a Russian pioneer in flying boat design. His designs were used sucessfully during World War One and both sides during the Russian Civil War. His designs served into the 1920's.

Grigorovich M-1 - 1913

The Grigorovich M-1 was a single-engine flying boat, designed by Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich and manufactured in Russia in 1913.

After repairing a crashed Donnet-Lévêque flying boat, D.P.Grigorovich built his first original flying boat . It differed from the prototype by shorter fuselage of modified shape and wing airfoil similar to one used on Farman-16.

The Grigorovich M-1 is a copy of the French Donnet-Lévêque. The two-seater aircraft was configured so the pilots sat side by side. The M-1 was powered by a Gnome engine and a wooden pusher propeller. There were pontoons mounted at the end of the lower wing to stabilize the aircraft in the water. The M-1 could take off and land in the water. There were lashing points on the fuselage for a dolly allowing land based take-offs..

General performance was satisfactory, but it was obvious that the design needed improvement.

References

1. From Wikipedia Grigorovich M-1, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigorovich_M-1"
2. Gunston, Bill. "The Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft 1875-1995". London:Osprey, 1995. ISBN 1 85532 405 9.
3. Shavrov, V.B. "History of aircraft construction in the USSR (Istoriya Konstruktsij Samoletov v SSSR.)" Vol 1-2. Moskva, Mashinostroenie, 1994. ISBN 5-217-02528-X

Britain - 1913 Vickers EFB 1-3

Early Evolution of Dedicated Fighters

The British Admiralty began the search for a viable fighter before the start of the Great War. One of the companies approached to design them was the Vickers Ltd Aviation Department. Even though Vickers was unsuccessful in developing a real fighter aircraft at that time, the research lead to the development of the E.F.B.5 and F.B.5 Gunbus which proved to be an effective aircraft for its time.

Vickers Experimental Fighting Biplane 1 - 1913

Vickers E.B.1 - 1913

Vickers received a contract from the Admiralty on November 19, 1912 for an experimental fighting biplane armed with a machine gun. Vickers investigated various configurations before deciding on placing the gunner in the extreme nose of the aircraft, in order to achieve a clear field of fire and avoid the still unsolved problem of firing a machine gun through the propeller's arc. Designated E.F.B. or Experimental Fighting Biplane 1 the aircraft was also known as the "Destroyer". Even though the prototype was unsuccessful; the Vickers E.F.B.1 was, if not the first, then one of the earliest dedicated fighter aircraft ever built.

The design choice required a fuselage nacelle carrying an 80 hp (60 kW) Wolseley Vee-eight-cylinder engine driving a pusher propeller mounted in the rear. The nacelle was built from steel tubing with a duralumin skin. This nacelle was mated with an unequal-span heavily-staggered biplane configuration. Wing warping was employed for lateral control. The airframe of the E.F.B.1 was primarily an all metal construction. The tail surfaces were carried by a pair of vertically disposed booms attached to the upper and lower rear wing spars on each side of the engine. The Vickers E.F.B.1 was armed with a single 7.7mm Maxim machine gun on a mount allowing a 60° range of elevation and lateral traverse.

Prior to its first flight, the E.F.B.1 was displayed at the Aero Show held at Olympia, London, in February 1913. The gun was fitted for the first flight test, made at Joyce Green, but this rendered the aircraft so nose-heavy that it briefly left the ground, then nosed down, struck the ground and turned over.

Vickers Experimental Fighting Biplane 2

Vickers E.B.2 - 1913

Following the loss of the E.F.B.1, Vickers undertook major redesign of its gun carrier while retaining the basic configuration to result in the E.F.B.2, again against an Admiralty contract. The E.F.B.2 eliminated the wing stagger of the previous aircraft and increased the span of the lower wing while retaining warping for lateral control. The fuselage nacelle was redesigned and large celluloid windows were inserted in its sides; the angular horizontal tail surfaces gave place to surfaces of elliptical form and a 100hp Gnome Monosoupape nine-cylinder rotary engine was fitted. The 7.7mm machine gun on a ball-and-socket mounting in the forward cockpit was retained, and the E.F.B.2 entered flight test at Bognor in the autumn of 1913, but crashed there during the course of October.

Vickers Experimental Fighting Biplane 3 - 1913

Vickers E.B.3 - 1913

In December 1913, a third Vickers Experimental Fighting Biplane, the E.F.B.3, made its debut. The slight overhang of the top wing was eliminated to result in an equi-span biplane, the fuselage nacelle underwent further redesign, the celluloid windows being eliminated, and, most important, ailerons on both upper and lower wings supplanted the wing-warping control of its predecessors. The 100hp Gnome Monosoupape rotary was retained as was also the 7.7mm Vickers gun. Displayed at the Aero Show held at Olympia in 1914, the E.F.B.3. was the subject of an order from the Admiralty for six aircraft placed in December 1913. This contract was subsequently taken over by the War Office, the six aircraft embodying a number of modifications - at least one was fitted with an eight-cylinder Vee-type 80hp Wolseley engine - and being referred to as the Vickers No (or Type) 30. These were to lead in turn to the E.F.B.5 and F.B.5 Gunbus.