The Short Admiralty Type 81 was a series of

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, ...

two-seat floatplanes 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 fightin ...

, and used by the Royal Naval Air Service in the early years of the war. They were powered by Gnome Lambda-Lambda 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 floatplanes for the British Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), a two- bay biplane powered by a Gnome Lambda-Lambda 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 its ...

, of which two were ordered, and a lighter and less powerful three-bay biplane powered by a Gnome Omega-Omega, (the Short Admiralty Type 74) 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 ailerons 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 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 In aviation, a water landing is, in the broadest sense, an aircraft landing on a body of water. Seaplanes, such as floatplanes and flying boats, land on water as a normal operation. Ditching is a controlled emergency landing on the water su ...

about 50 miles from Great Yarmouth, 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 HMS ''A7'' was an submarine built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She sank in a training accident in 1914 with the loss of her entire crew. Efforts to salvage her failed and her wreck is a protected site. Diving o ...

, 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 Hampshire ...

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 The Sopwith Special torpedo seaplane Type C was the first British aircraft designed to drop torpedoes. A single-engine biplane floatplane, it flew in July 1914 but proved unable to lift the design load and was soon abandoned. Design and deve ...

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. E ...

, 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 on

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. 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 The Caudron G.3 was a single-engined French sesquiplane built by Caudron, widely used in World War I as a reconnaissance aircraft and trainer. Development The Caudron G.3 was designed by René and Gaston Caudron as a development of their earlie ...

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 be a ...

'', 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