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The Short S.81 was an experimental
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
gun-carrying
pusher biplane seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...
, ordered from
Short Brothers
Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...
by the
British Admiralty in 1913 for use by the
Royal Naval Air Service.
The seaplane, manufacturers serial number S.81, was built at Eastchurch and allocated the military
serial number ''126''.
S.81 was delivered to Calshot on 25 May 1914 and accepted by the Navy on 2 June 1914.
It had three-
bay wings with overhanging upper wings, and was powered by a 160 hp (119 kW)
Gnome rotary engine
The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...
.
[Bruce 1957, p. 479.] It was first fitted with a 1½ pounder (37 mm) semi-automatic Vickers quick-firing gun in July 1914. Tests with this gun showed that recoil was severe, with claims that firing the gun would induce a
stall.
[Williams and Gustin 2003, p. 93.] It was fitted with a number of different guns for trials,
testing a six-pounder (57 mm)
Davis gun
The Davis gun was the first true recoilless gun developed and taken into service. It was developed by Commander Cleland Davis of the United States Navy in 1910, just prior to World War I.
Development
Davis' design connected two guns back to bac ...
(an early
recoilless gun
A recoilless rifle, recoilless launcher or recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated "RR" or "RCL" (for ReCoilLess) is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some form of countermass such as propel ...
) in 1915.
[Williams and Gustin 2003, p. 94.] In 1915 it had a dynamo and searchlight fitted. No longer needed for trials, it was deleted from the inventory in October 1915.
Specifications
Operators
;
*
Royal Naval Air Service
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Bruce, J.M. ''British Aeroplanes 1914–18''. London:Putnam, 1957.
* Mason, Francis K. ''The British Fighter since 1912''. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1992. .
* Ray Sturtivant and Gordon Page ''Royal Navy Aircraft Serials and Units 1911-1919''
Air-Britain Air-Britain, traditionally sub-titled "The International Association of Aviation Enthusiasts", is a non-profit aviation society founded in July 1948. As from 2015, it is constituted as a British charitable trust and book publisher.
History
Air-Brit ...
, 1992. .
* Williams, Anthony G. and Emmanuel Gustin. ''Flying Guns World War I''. Ramsbury, UK:Airlife Publishing, 2003. .
{{Short Brothers aircraft
1910s British experimental aircraft
Short Brothers aircraft
Floatplanes
Biplanes
Single-engined pusher aircraft
Rotary-engined aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1914