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Calshot Seaplane Base
RNAS Calshot was a First World War Royal Navy air station for seaplanes and flying boats, mainly operating as an experimental and training station, but also providing anti-submarine and convoy protection patrols. It was located at the end of Calshot Spit in Southampton Water, at , with the landing area sheltered by the mainland, to the west, north and east, and the Isle of Wight a few miles away to the south on the other side of the Solent. History Royal Flying Corps The station was originally established on 29 March 1913 by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), as Calshot Naval Air Station, for the purpose of testing seaplanes for the RFC Naval wing. The first aircraft to arrive was a Sopwith Bat Boat, and one of the first buildings constructed – the Sopwith Hangar – is still in use today. Royal Naval Air Service In July 1914 the Royal Navy re-formed its air branch, naming it the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), and took over the Calshot base and its development and training fu ...
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Calshot
Calshot is a coastal village in Hampshire, England at the west corner of Southampton Water where it joins the Solent.OS Explorer Map, New Forest, Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey B4 edition (2013). History In 1539, Henry VIII ordered the construction of Calshot Castle, at the end of Calshot Spit, to defend the port of Southampton from attack. Its strategic importance continues to the present day, and there is still a military presence in Calshot, though the castle is no longer a manned fort. Calshot is notable for its role in the development of aircraft and flying boats. In 1913 the Royal Flying Corps established Calshot Naval Air Station (later known as RNAS Calshot and RAF Calshot) at the end of Calshot Spit. It was also at one point home to Lawrence of Arabia. Calshot Lifeboat Station was established in 1970 by the RNLI. Relationship with Tristan da Cunha Following a volcanic eruption in 1961, the population of the Tristan da Cunha islands was evacuated to Cals ...
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English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kanaal, "The Channel"; german: Ärmelkanal, "Sleeve Channel" ( French: ''la Manche;'' also called the British Channel or simply the Channel) is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to at its narrowest in the Strait of Dover."English Channel". ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', 2004. It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some . The Channel was a key factor in Britain becoming a naval superpower and has been utilised by Britain as a natural def ...
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List Of Air Stations Of The Royal Navy
This is a list of naval air stations of the Royal Navy. Naval air stations are land bases of the Fleet Air Arm, the branch of the Royal Navy responsible for the operation of naval aircraft. Current naval air stations Currently RNAS means "Royal Naval Air Station" and, in common with the Royal Air Force, is always followed by a geographical place in which the air station is located. Historically, RNAS referred to the Royal Naval Air Service, the aviation branch of the Royal Navy which merged in 1918 with the Royal Flying Corps of the British Army to form the independent Royal Air Force. Between 1918 and 1939, the Royal Air Force had provided the Fleet Air Arm to the Royal Navy, and Royal Naval Air Stations were consequently operated by Royal Air force personnel. In 1939, operation of the Fleet Air Arm was transferred to the Royal Navy, with Royal Air Force personnel replaced by Royal Naval personnel, or transferring to the Royal Navy. As the Coastal Command remained part of ...
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Seaplane Bases In The United Kingdom
This article lists both active and historic seaplane bases in the United Kingdom, many of which were either used for, or planned to be used for, the defence of the UK. A seaplane base may be anything from a stretch of water where seaplanes were based to a full installation, either floating ( powered or unpowered) or shore based, where seaplanes were serviced. In the UK these are presumed to be coastal. Active seaplane bases * Glasgow Seaplane Terminal, Glasgow *Oban Bay, Oban *Loch Lomond * Tobermory, Isle of Mull *Enniskillen Proposed seaplane base * Royal Albert Docks, London City Airport. Former bases * RAF Alness, Alness, Ross and Cromarty *Bembridge Harbour, Isle of Wight (1915-1919) *Brough Aerodrome, East Riding of Yorkshire *RNAS Calshot/RAF Calshot, Hampshire *RAF Castle Archdale, Lough Erne, Northern IrelandLondon 2003, pp. 288–290. *RAF Catfirth, Shetland Islands (1917-1919) *Cromarty, Ross & Cromarty (1913-1915) *RNAS Donibristle, Dalgety Bay, Fife *RNAS Dundee ...
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List Of Seaplanes And Flying Boats
The following is a list of seaplanes, which includes floatplanes and flying boats. A seaplane is any airplane that has the capability of landing and taking off from water, while an amphibian is a seaplane which can also operate from land. (They do not include rotorcraft, or ground-effect vehicles which can only skim along close to the water) A flying boat relies on its main hull for buoyancy, while a floatplane has a conventional aircraft fuselage fitted with external floats. In some locales, the term "seaplane" is used as a synonym for floatplane. List A small number of seaplanes have retractable beaching gear, which is not capable of being used for landings and takeoffs, but these remain flying boats or floatplanes and are not amphibians. Many floatplanes, especially those since 1945, can have either conventional floats for operating just from water, or amphibious floats, which have retractable undercarriage built into them. Some experimental flying boats have used skis or ...
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RAF Calshot
Royal Air Force Calshot or more simply RAF Calshot was initially a seaplane and flying boat station, and latterly a Royal Air Force marine craft maintenance and training unit. It was located at the end of Calshot Spit in Southampton Water, Hampshire, England, at . It was the main seaplane/ flying boat development and training unit in the UK, with the landing area sheltered by the mainland, to the west, north and east, and the Isle of Wight, a few miles away to the south on the other side of the Solent, where seaplanes and flying boats were mass-produced by Saunders-Roe. It closed in 1961. Much of the former base has been preserved, with most of the site now being occupied by the RNLI. Origins The station was originally established on 29 March 1913 by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), as the Calshot Naval Air Station, for the purpose of testing seaplanes for the RFC Naval wing. The station was taken over by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) during the First World War and finall ...
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Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Following the Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, the RAF emerged as the largest air force in the world at the time. Since its formation, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history. In particular, it played a large part in the Second World War where it fought its most famous campaign, the Battle of Britain. The RAF's mission is to support the objectives of the British Ministry of Defence (MOD), which are to "provide the capabilities needed to ensure the security and defence of the United Kingdom and overseas territories, including against terrorism; to support the Government's foreign policy objectives particularly in promoting international peace and security". The R ...
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U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role (commerce raiding) and enforcing a naval blockade against enemy shipping. The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada and other parts of the British Empire, and from the United States, to the United Kingdom and (during the Second World War) to the Soviet Union and the Allied territories in the Mediterranean. German submarines also destroyed Brazilian merchant ships during World War II, causing Brazil to declare war on both Germany and Italy on 22 August 1942. The term is an anglicised version of the German word ''U-Boot'' , a shortening of ''Unterseeboot'' ('under-sea-boat'), though the German term refers to any submarine. Austro-Hungarian Navy submarines were also kno ...
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Felixstowe F
Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northeast of London. History The town is named after Felix of Burgundy, a saint and the first bishop of the East Angles in the seventh century. The old Felixstowe hamlet was centred on a pub and church, having stood on the site since long before the Norman conquest of England. The early history of Felixstowe, including its Roman Britain, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Normans, Norman and medieval defences, is told under the name of Walton, Suffolk, Walton, because the name Felixstowe was given retrospectively, during the 13th century, to a place which had expanded to a form beyond the boundaries of Walton alone. In the Doomsday book, for instance, only Walton is shown, and not Felixstowe, which at the time held little more than a few houses scattered over ...
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RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus)
Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent (HMS ''Daedalus'') was one of the primary shore airfields of the Fleet Air Arm. First established as a seaplane base in 1917 during the First World War, it later became the main training establishment and administrative centre of the Fleet Air Arm. Situated near Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire, approximately four miles west of Portsmouth on the coast of the Solent at , the airfield closed for military use in 1996 and passed through several owners until 2014 when the current owners Fareham Borough Council bought the airfield and re-branded as Solent Airport. The airfield hosts the Solent Enterprise Zone. History Naval aviation began at Lee-on-Solent on 30 July 1917 when the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) opened the Naval Seaplane Training School as an extension to the seaplane training station at nearby Calshot. The school's first commander was Squadron Commander Douglas Evill. Initially, aircraft had to be transported from their temporary ...
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Airships
An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air Powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early dirigibles, the lifting gas used was hydrogen gas, hydrogen, due to its high lifting capacity and ready availability. Helium gas has almost the same lifting capacity and is not flammable, unlike hydrogen, but is rare and relatively expensive. Significant amounts were first discovered in the United States and for a while helium was only available for airships in that country. Most airships built since the 1960s have used helium, though some have used hot air.A few airships after World War II used hydrogen. The first British airship to use helium was the Chitty Bang Bang (airship), ''Chitty Bang Bang'' of 1967. The envelope of an airship may form the gasbag, or it may contain a number of gas-filled cells. An airship also has ...
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