The Lakes Sea Bird was a two-seat floatplane built during 1912 by the Lakes Flying Company using the fuselage of the

Avro Duigan The Avro Type E, Type 500, and Type 502 made up a family of early British military aircraft, regarded by Alliott Verdon Roe as his firm's first truly successful design. It was a forerunner of the Avro 504, one of the outstanding aircraft of the ...

which had been built by Avro for

John Robertson Duigan John Robertson Duigan MC (31 May 1882 – 11 June 1951) was an Australian pioneer aviator who built and flew the first Australian-made aircraft. Family Duigan was born in Terang, Victoria, and grew up in Melbourne He married nurse Ka ...

. It gave many visitors to Windermere their first flight in the summer of 1913

Development

After Duigan damaged his aircraft and returned to Australia the fuselage and tail unit were sold to the Lakes Flying Co. based at

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its wides ...

, who rebuilt it as a two-seat floatplane. The straight parallel-chord high aspect ratio wings of irregular three-bay layout resembled those of Avro's Avro Type D. It was originally fitted with a single central two-step float, later changed to a pair of narrower floats, and demountable so that the aircraft could readily be used as a landplane. It was powered by a rotary 7-cylinder Gnome of 50 hp (37 kW),

Operational history

The single Sea Bird carried many holiday makers in 1912-3. Later, it was restored for training but was lost in 1915 when a student pilot spun it in.

Specifications

References

*Avro Aircraft since 1908 ''Jackson A.J.''. London Putnam: 1965 *Lewis, P '' RBritish Aircraft 1809-1914''. London, Putnam: 1962 {{refend 1910s British aircraft