Flying-boats of the 1920s and 1930s

SUPERMARINE   
Early types included the Sea Eagle (last one G-EBGR, marked as G-EBGS, burned by BOAC at Heston, 1954 )


Sorry Sefton Brancker is in the caption on this photo of G-EBFK


The Supermarine Swan preceded the very successful Southampton




The  Supermarine Nanok  (based on the Southampton), having failed to sell to the Danish Navy, was converted to Supermarine Solent G-AAAB an  'air yacht' for Irish millionaire engineer/aviator the Hon A E Guinness


 The early open cockpit biplane flying boats were like the sailing ships of the skies...their crews exposed to a constant Force 10 gale

Two Supermarine Southamptons over the Isle of Wight (probably photographed from a 3rd one !) by Charles E Brown



An RAF Southampton S1235 loaned to Imperial Airways as a mailplane after the crash of a Short Calcutta, marked G-AAFH in error, corrected later to G-AASH


Southanpton S-1149 also photographed by Charles E Brown?


Southamptons were exported to Australia (and Japan, Turkey and Argentina)


Supermarine Scapa K4193 in the Mediterranean at Malta


RJ Mitchell's monoplane Supermarine Air Yacht of 1929 was another attempt  for the Hon. A E Guinness but he rejected it.


For an American comparison the monoplane Consolidated Commodore was in service in 1929





The enclosed cockpit of the late 1930s Supermarine Stanraer made long ocean patrols more tolerable .........still in use with the RCAF in WWII  around  Vancouver







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SHORTS   Short Bros. first flew  their Cromarty  flying boat (N120) from their factory on the Medway near Rochester Castle in 1921....the upper part of its fuselage appears to be translucent clear doped fabric rather like a model plane....whilst being trialled by the RAF Seaplane Development Unit in August 1922 it was holed on submerged rocks in the Isles of Scilly and scrapped locally ( one wonders if Gibson of Scilly  famous for shipwreck pictures, photographed  it)

 

SHORTS   produced 6 of the three-engined Calcutta for Imperial Airways  as the larger commercial contemporary of the Singapore. The Calcutta featured a stressed skin Alclad duralumin fuselage, an advance on the previous wooden hulled flying boats whose hulls could reportedly absorb almost a quarter ton of water if left afloat for long periods.  The single Calcutta sold to Breguet served with Air Union as F -AJDB. Breguet license built 4 military Calcuttas and developed the design extensively


Alan Cobham and Oswald Short brought Calcutta G-EBVG to the Thames beside Parliament in 1928....so MPs including Winston Churchill could inspect it 








The RAF's Rangoons (6 built) were military developments of the Calcutta with gun positions and an enclosed cockpit ....here seen above the river Medway near Shorts factory. The Rangoon design was licensed to, and developed by , Breguet.


The RAF's first Rangoon S1433 was turned over to Air Service Training Ltd as G-AEIM in 1938 for Imperial Airways crew training 




Imperial Airways bought 3 Kent flying boats from Short. Developed from the  Calcutta but four-engined with an enclosed cockpit and more range and payload and internal volume


Shorts developed the Rangoon design for a Japanese requirement with Rolls Royce Buzzard engines replacing Bristol Jupiters and built and exported the  first example of what became the Kawanishi H3K (4 built under license in Japan)


BREGUET license-built 4 military Calcuttas at Le Havre before developing the Short Rangoon design into the much modified taller-tailed military Breguet 521 Bizerte (37 built) and its civilian equivalent the Breguet 530 Saigon( 2 built 'Algerie' F-AMSV and' 'Tunisie' F-AMSX)  The last 3 Bizertes were  completed during the Vichy regime,  Bizertes equipped Luftwaffe SAR units operated on France 's Atlantic Coast , one being re-acquired' by the Free French after D-Day. The military Bizertes were fitted with increasing amounts of nose glazing, improving SAR/reconnaissance functionality but not their appearance.



BREGUET 530 Saigon F-AMSV 'Algerie '


BREGUET 530  Saigon F-AMSX 'Tunisie'


Bizerte with earlier nose glazing


Bizerte with later extended nose observation glazing


An Aeronautique Naval Bizerte on the River Tagus, Lisbon 1938  (Rio Tejo.,Lisboa )....note observation windows&blisters

Several countries competed to conquer the oceans with monoplane flying boats.
In FRANCE the LATECOERE company produced the  300 series parasol wing flying-boats most famously  Croix du Sud in which Jean Mermoz made several South Atlantic crossings until his disappearance 7Dec36


The late 1930s Latecoeres (and other French flying-boats!)  sometimes seemed to have their roots in branches of civil engineering  remote from aviation ...however a skilled photographer like the Smithsonian archived Rudy Arnold could make the best of the fortress-like 6 engined Latecoere 521


F-NORD Lt Vaisseau de Paris made a South Atlantic crossing to Brazil but was overturned in high winds at Pensacola, Florida in December1935 ...it was completely rebuilt in France after return as deck-cargo....made 4 Biscarosse-New York return North Atlantic flights in 1939...




The Latecoere 522 was slightly more conventionally styled in the nose area 

3 Latecoere 523  served with the Aeronautique Navale in Vichy France in WWII