(Felixstowe) F.5 @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Felixstowe F.5 Felixstowe F.5
    Felixstowe F.5
  • The N90 prototype The N90 prototype
    The N90 prototype
  • N4892 (RAF) N4892 (RAF)
    N4892 (RAF)
  • Felixstowe F.5 (RAF) Felixstowe F.5 (RAF)
    Felixstowe F.5 (RAF)
  • F5L A-4308 (built by Curtiss) F5L A-4308 (built by Curtiss)
    F5L A-4308 (built by Curtiss)
  • Instrument<br>panel Instrument<br>panel
    Instrument
    panel
  • Imperial Japanese Navy, RAF, US Navy Imperial Japanese Navy, RAF, US Navy
    Imperial Japanese Navy, RAF, US Navy
  • US Navy F5L (1-J-1) US Navy F5L (1-J-1)
    US Navy F5L (1-J-1)
  • US Navy F5L A-3800 US Navy F5L A-3800
    US Navy F5L A-3800
  • US Navy F5L (striped markings) US Navy F5L (striped markings)
    US Navy F5L (striped markings)

Felixstowe F.5

The Felixstowe F.5 was a British twin-engined biplane flying boat designed at the end of the First World War by Lieutenant Commander John Cyril Porte RN at the Seaplane Experimental Station, Felixstowe (Suffolk). Last of the long line of Felixstowe boats derived from the Curtiss "America" of 1914, it arrived too late to see action, but became the standard flying boat of the Royal Air Force from 1919 until 1925. Licence-built in the United States as the F5L (often called the "Curtiss F-5L") and in Japan, it also served as the US Navy's standard patrol flying boat until 1928, carried the first scheduled international airline passengers of the United States, and was the ancestor of the Naval Aircraft Factory PN series and of the Japanese Hiro H1H.

Design and development

From the Curtiss boats to the F.5

Before the war Porte had worked with Glenn Curtiss on the "America" flying boat, intended to fly across the Atlantic. Back in the Royal Navy and in command of the naval air station at Felixstowe, he persuaded the Admiralty to buy Curtiss H-4 and later H-12 "Large America" boats, whose hulls proved too weak for the North Sea. Porte designed new, stronger and more seaworthy hulls, giving successively the Felixstowe F.1, the F.2A (a new hull married to the wings of the H-12) and the larger F.3, which carried twice the bomb load of the F.2A but was slower and less manoeuvrable.

The F.5 was intended to combine the payload and range of the F.3 with the handling qualities of the F.2A. The prototype, N90, built at Felixstowe and powered by two 350 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines, first flew in November 1917 (some sources give May 1918). It had a new hull with a deeper top decking, an open cockpit for the pilots, a new wing structure of greater span with constant-chord ailerons, and a broad-chord tailplane with horn-balanced rudder and ailerons. On official trials it clearly outperformed the F.3, even when overloaded.

Production

Because a large F.3 programme was already under way, the production F.5 was redesigned to use as many F.3 components as possible. The production aircraft was heavier than N90 and its performance was in fact slightly inferior to that of the F.3, especially when engine shortages forced the use of 325 hp Eagle VII engines. It nevertheless offered a greater endurance and good handling, and its hull sides and decks were covered with wood rather than doped fabric. Later aircraft received horn-balanced elevators.

As with the earlier Felixstowe boats, production was spread among several firms: Short Brothers (23), the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company (17), the Gosport Aircraft Company (10) and Dick, Kerr & Co. (2), with further work by S.E. Saunders, the Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco) and May, Harden & May, while Boulton & Paul built hulls only. Large orders were cancelled after the Armistice; in all, around 160 British-built F.5s were completed.

The American F5L

The US Navy was interested in the F.5 from the start. Complete drawings reached the Naval Aircraft Factory (NAF) in Philadelphia in March 1918, and the design was adapted to American production methods and to the 400 hp Liberty 12A engine, the "L" of the designation standing for Liberty (the "F" for Felixstowe). The hull was strengthened with plywood veneer instead of doped linen, the streamlining was improved and the ailerons were balanced. The first NAF-built F5L flew on 15 July 1918, only four months after the drawings had been received. Orders for 480 aircraft were drastically cut at the end of the war: the NAF delivered 137, Curtiss 60 and Canadian Aeroplanes Ltd of Toronto 30, for a total of 227 aircraft. Although the NAF built the largest number, the type is commonly known as the "Curtiss F-5L" because of its Curtiss ancestry. A much larger vertical tail was later adopted as standard.

Japan

In 1921 the British civil aviation mission led by Colonel the Master of Sempill delivered F.5s, built by Short, to the Imperial Japanese Navy, which then acquired a licence. The first aircraft were assembled at Yokosuka from British parts; production then continued at the Hiro Naval Arsenal from October 1921 and at Aichi until 1929 (the figures quoted vary according to the sources). The Hiro arsenal later developed from it the improved Hiro H1H (Navy Type 15).

Operational history

United Kingdom

The F.5 entered service after the Armistice and gradually replaced the F.2A, F.3 and Curtiss H-16 boats, becoming the standard flying boat of the post-war RAF. It equipped up to eight squadrons and flights, notably No. 230 Squadron at Felixstowe, renumbered No. 480 Flight at the end of 1922 and later based at Calshot, where it formed the flying boat training establishment. In the summer of 1919 the early production N4044 toured Scandinavia, covering 2,450 miles (3,943 km) in 27 days and returning to Felixstowe fully serviceable. In 1923, two F.5s under Air Commodore Bigsworth made a cruise to Gibraltar, Malta, Bizerta and Oran without incident. The F.5 was also used for many experiments, including a "hollow-bottom" hull built by Saunders (N178) and, in 1924, an all-metal hull built by Short Brothers for N177, making it the first military flying boat with a metal hull. It was replaced by the Supermarine Southampton from August 1925.

United States

The F5L entered US service just as the war ended and, with the Curtiss H-16, became the US Navy's standard patrol flying boat. Some carried a Davis recoilless gun in the bow, and the type could carry up to eleven machine guns and 1,000 lb (454 kg) of bombs. F5Ls took part in the famous bombing trials of July 1921, which sank the former German battleship Ostfriesland. In 1922, under the Navy's new designation system, the F5L and F6L became the PN-5 and PN-6, although the original names remained in use. F5Ls served until 1928, when they were replaced by the Naval Aircraft Factory PN-12. Early in 1919, F5L A3864 had been modified to test a tandem arrangement of two engines (one tractor, one pusher) in a single nacelle, a layout considered for the Curtiss NC flying boats.

Civil use

Surplus F5Ls were converted into passenger transports. Aeromarine converted several aircraft into the Aeromarine 75, with a closed cabin for 10 to 12 passengers. Operated by Aeromarine West Indies Airways (later Aeromarine Airways), the boats "Santa Maria" and "Pinta" opened on 1 November 1920 a daily service between Key West and Havana, the first scheduled international passenger and air mail service of the United States; the network later extended to Miami, Nassau, Bimini and, in summer, to the Great Lakes (Detroit-Cleveland). In 1921 an Aeromarine 75 flying over Chicago showed passengers the film "Howdy Chicago!", regarded as the first in-flight movie. Atlantic Coast Airways Corporation of Delaware also operated a converted F5L in the late 1920s.

Japan

Japanese F.5s, flown notably from Lake Kasumigaura, served with the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1922 to about 1930 and made several notable long-distance flights, some lasting more than nine hours.

Variants

  • N90 : Prototype built by the Seaplane Experimental Station, Felixstowe.
  • F.5 : Main production version built by sub-contractors, using many F.3 components to ease manufacture.
  • F5L : American-built version with two Liberty engines; 137 built by the Naval Aircraft Factory, 60 by Curtiss and 30 by Canadian Aeroplanes Ltd. Redesignated PN-5 from 1922.
  • F6L : F5L with a new, enlarged vertical tail; redesignated PN-6.
  • Gosport Flying Boat : Civil conversion of the F.5 by the Gosport Aircraft Company, which had built ten aircraft for the RAF.
  • Gosport Fire Fighter : Proposed 10-seat version designed to carry men and equipment to the scene of a forest fire or other emergency.
  • Gosport G5 : Proposed civil version for two crew and six passengers.
  • Aeromarine 75 : Civil passenger version of the F5L converted by the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company; entered service on 1 November 1920.
  • Saunders hull : Tunnel-type wooden hull tested by S.E. Saunders from 1922 in comparison with Short's metal hull.
  • Short S.2 : F.5 (N177) fitted by Short Brothers with an all-metal hull.
  • Navy F.5 : Japanese licence-built version for the Imperial Japanese Navy (Yokosuka, Hiro, Aichi).
  • Hiro H1H : Improved Japanese development (Navy Type 15), retired in 1938.

Operators

  • Argentina : Argentine Naval Aviation (F5L).
  • Brazil : Brazilian Naval Aviation (F5L).
  • Japan : Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service.
  • Philippines : Philippine Air Service (F5L).
  • United Kingdom : Royal Air Force.
  • United States :
    • United States Navy (F5L).
    • United States Marine Corps (F5L).
    • Aeromarine West Indies Airways / Aeromarine Airways (Aeromarine 75).
    • Atlantic Coast Airways Corporation of Delaware (F5L).

Accidents and incidents

  • 29 June 1921 : F.5 N4831 collided with a ferry boat in Felixstowe harbour.
  • 13 January 1923 : The Aeromarine 75 "Columbus" suffered an engine failure on the Key West - Havana route and ditched in the Straits of Florida; four passengers drowned and the mail was lost.
  • 18 January 1923 : US Navy F5L A-3359, swerving to avoid a sightseeing boat while coming out of fog, crashed onto rocks; the co-pilot was killed.
  • 16 August 1925 : F.5 N4039 of No. 480 Flight crashed at night and caught fire at Calshot after a heavy landing on glassy calm water; one of the four crew was killed.

Surviving aircraft

No complete Felixstowe flying boat survives. In March 1919 the Naval Aircraft Factory sent a specially built F5L (A-3882), only partially skinned to reveal its structure, to an aeronautical exhibition in New York. Given to the Smithsonian Institution, it was handed back to the Navy around 1930, but the hull, a wing float, a propeller and a bomb were kept; they belong to the National Air and Space Museum and are currently in storage. The nose section of an unidentified Felixstowe flying boat is displayed at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton, England.

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This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Felixstowe F.5 of Wikipedia ( authors )

Felixstowe F.5

  • Role : Maritime patrol flying boat.
  • Manufacturer : Seaplane Experimental Station (Felixstowe) and sub-contractors (Short Brothers, Phoenix Dynamo, Gosport Aircraft, Dick, Kerr & Co.).
  • Designer : John Cyril Porte.
  • First flight : November 1917 (prototype N90).
  • Introduction : 1918.
  • Retired : 1930.
  • Status : retired.
  • Primary users :
    • Royal Air Force.
    • United States Navy (F5L).
    • Imperial Japanese Navy.
  • Number built : 163 (F.5) ; 227 (F5L).
  • Developed from :
  • Variants :
    • Felixstowe F5L (Curtiss F-5L).
    • Hiro H1H.
  • Developed into :
    • Naval Aircraft Factory PN.

    Specifications (F.5)

  • Crew: four.
  • Length: 49 ft 3 in (15.01 m).
  • Wingspan: 103 ft 8 in (31.6 m).
  • Height: 18 ft 9 in (5.72 m).
  • Wing area: 1,409 sq ft (130.9 m²).
  • Empty weight: 9,100 lb (4,128 kg).
  • Gross weight: 12,682 lb (5,752 kg).
  • Powerplant: Two Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII V-12 water-cooled piston engines.
  • Power: 345 hp (257 kW) each.
  • Maximum speed: 88 mph (142 km/h, 76 kts) at 2,000 ft.
  • Endurance: 7 hours.
  • Service ceiling: 6,800 ft (2,070 m).
  • Guns: Four .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis machine guns (one in the bow, three amidships).
  • Bombs: Four 230 lb (104 kg) bombs under the wings.

    • Specifications (F5L)

  • Crew: four.
  • Length: 49 ft 4 in (15.04 m).
  • Wingspan: upper 103 ft 9 in (31.63 m); lower 74 ft 4 in (22.66 m).
  • Height: 18 ft 9 in (5.72 m).
  • Wing area: 1,394 sq ft (129.5 m²).
  • Empty weight: 8,720 lb (3,955 kg).
  • Gross weight: 13,600 lb (6,169 kg).
  • Powerplant: Two Liberty L-12A V-12 water-cooled piston engines.
  • Power: 400 hp (300 kW) each.
  • Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch.
  • Maximum speed: 90 mph (145 km/h, 78 kts).
  • Cruise speed: 74 mph (119 km/h, 64 kts).
  • Range: 830 mi (1,340 km, 720 nmi).
  • Service ceiling: 5,500 ft (1,680 m).
  • Guns: Six to eight .30 in (7.62 mm) Lewis machine guns on flexible mounts.
  • Bombs: Four 230 lb (104 kg) bombs.

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Felixstowe F.5 of Wikipedia ( authors )
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