The Short Admiralty Type 81 was a series of British two-seat

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

s built prior to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, and used by the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

in the early years of the war. They were powered by

Gnome Lambda-Lambda The Gnome 7 Lambda was a French designed, seven-cylinder, air-cooled rotary aero engine that was produced under license in Britain and Germany. Powering several World War I-era aircraft types it was claimed to produce from its capacity of alt ...

14 cylinder two-row rotary engines and had folding wings to aid storage on ship, hence the popular name

Short Folder Short Folder is a generic name often applied to several different Short Brothers' aircraft types designed and built prior to and during World War I. Short Brothers developed and patented folding wing mechanisms for ship-borne aircraft from 1913 ...

, shared with a number of other seaplanes made by

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 ...

Design and development

During 1913,

received orders for two new types of

s for the British

(RNAS), a two-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a nar ...

biplane powered by a

twin-row

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 i ...

, of which two were ordered, and a lighter and less powerful three-bay biplane powered by a

Gnome Omega-Omega The Gnome 7 Omega (commonly called the Gnome 50 hp) is a French seven-cylinder, air-cooled aero engine produced by Gnome et Rhône. It was shown at the Paris Aero Salon held in December 1908 and was first flown in 1909. It was the world's f ...

, (the

Short Admiralty Type 74 The Short Admiralty Type 74 was a single-engined biplane tractor seaplane with non-folding wings, which saw service with the Royal Naval Air Service during the First World War. Design and development The Type 74 incorporated some of the innova ...

) of which seven were ordered.Barnes 1967, p. 91. The first of these to appear was the 160 hp Gnome-powered aircraft, the first of which had the Shorts construction number ''S.63'' and the Royal Navy serial number ''81'', making its maiden flight in July 1913, piloted by

Charles Rumney Samson Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson, (8 July 1883 – 5 February 1931) was a British naval aviation pioneer. He was one of the first four officers selected for pilot training by the Royal Navy and was the first person to fly an aircraft fr ...

.Barnes 1967, p. 92. It had high aspect ratio wings of uneven span, which were fitted with large

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement arou ...

s on the upper wings, and folded for storage on board ship. The second 160 hp Folder, serial number 82, followed in March 1914, and was followed by two more (''89'' and ''90'' with three-bay wings and an improved wing-folding mechanism as tested by the Short S.41.Barnes 1967, pp. 91, 95. A further five Folders (''119''–''122'', ''186''), powered by 160 hp Gnomes were delivered in 1914, with longer fuselages and larger three-bay wings of span compared with for the first aircraft). The twin-row Gnomes proved to be unreliable, and were fitted with a large funnel-type exhaust stack above the

cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

.Barnes 1967, pp. 94–95.

Operational history

The RNAS took delivery of ''81'' on 17 July 1913, and it was quickly deployed aboard the cruiser HMS ''Hermes'', which had been converted to the first

seaplane tender A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are rega ...

of the Royal Navy, for the 1913 Naval manoeuvres, where it was used for reconnaissance missions, using a radio set to report the position of shipping. An engine failure on 1 August resulted in ''81'' ditching about 50 miles from

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of ...

, but although damaged, it was rescued by the German timber carrier ''Clara Mennig''.Bruce 1957, p. 477.Bruce ''Flight'' 14 December 1956, p. 925. The second aircraft ''82'' took place in the unsuccessful search for the missing submarine HMS A7, while four 160 hp Folders took part in the

Spithead Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshir ...

Fleet Review A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...

in July 1914.Barnes 1967, p. 94. The RNAS took delivery of the Sopwith Special floatplane which was specifically designed to drop a 14-inch torpedo in early July 1914, but it proved unable to take off while carrying the planned weapon (or initially at all),Mason 1994, p. 19. so Squadron-Commander

Arthur Longmore Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Murray Longmore, (8 October 1885 – 10 December 1970) was an early naval aviator, before reaching high rank in the Royal Air Force. He was Commander-in-Chief of the RAF's Middle East Command from 1940 to 1941. Ear ...

, commander of the Calshot seaplane station which was carrying out the torpedo trials, suggested that one of the 160 hp Folders be modified for torpedo dropping. Drawings for torpedo gear were quickly produced by Shorts, and aircraft No. ''121'', flown by Longmore, carried out the first torpedo drop by a British aircraft on 28 July 1914.Mason 1994, pp. 17–18.Bruce ''Flight'' 14 December 1956, p. 926. Although several other 160 hp Folders were fitted with torpedo gear, the modification was of little practical use, as when carrying a torpedo, it could not carry an observer, and even with only 30 minutes fuel, was badly overloaded.Barnes 1967, p. 97. Following the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the Royal Navy purchased three fast cross-channel ferrys for use as seaplane carriers, one of which was HMS ''Engadine'', to which three 160 hp folders were allocated. When ''Engadine'' took part in the

Cuxhaven Raid The Raid on Cuxhaven (german: link=no, Weihnachtsangriff, Christmas Raid) was a British ship-based air-raid on the Imperial German Navy at Cuxhaven mounted on Christmas Day, 1914. Aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service were carried to with ...

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

1914, two of her Folders took off as part of the strike force, one returning to ''Engadine'', and the other ditching near the Royal Navy submarine E11, which recovered its crew.Barnes 1967, pp. 97–98.Bruce ''Flight'' 21 December 1956, p. 966. Three 160 hp folders were sent to

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

in March 1915 to take part in operations against the German cruiser ''Königsberg'', blockaded in the Ruji Delta in

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mo ...

. The Shorts struggled in the hot and humid conditions of East Africa, being unable to carry any bombload, but were used to carry out reconnaissance of the ''Königsberg'' before being replaced in June that year by a Caudron G.III and two Farman F.27s.Bruce 1957, pp. 478–479.

Specifications (RNAS ''119''–''122'', ''186'')

Notes

References

*Barnes, C.H. ''Shorts Aircraft since 1900''. London:Putnam, 1967. *Bruce, J.M. ''British Aeroplanes 1914–18''. London:Putnam, 1957. *Bruce, J.M
"The Short Seaplanes: Historic Military Aircraft No. 14: Part I"
''

Flight Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can b ...

'', 14 December 1956, pp. 921–926. *Bruce, J.M
"The Short Seaplanes: Historic Military Aircraft No. 14: Part 2"
''Flight'', 21 December 1956, pp. 965–968. *Bruce, J.M

''Flight'', 4 January 1957. pp. 23–24. *Mason, Francis K. ''The British Bomber since 1914''. London:Putnam, 1994. . {{Short Brothers aircraft 1910s British military reconnaissance aircraft Floatplanes Admiralty Type 81 Biplanes Rotary-engined aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1913