The Wight Pusher Seaplane, or Navyplane, was a British twin-float patrol seaplane produced by John Samuel White & Company Limited (Wight Aircraft).

Design and development

Designed by Howard T Wright, the Pusher Seaplane was an enlarged version of the first successful product of the aircraft department of John Samuel White & Company Limited (Wight Aircraft), the Wight Seaplane No.2. The aircraft was an unequal-span pusher

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

with five-bay wings mounted on two long floats. It was powered by a single 200 hp (149 kW) Salmson Canton Unné water cooled radial engine. It was exhibited at the 1914 Olympia Air Show in March that year, and was first flown on 8 April.London 1994, p.73. It exhibited good take-off, climb performance and endurance, with these properties giving rise to orders from both the British

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 ...

, who ordered three and the German ''

Kaiserliche Marine {{italic title The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control. The term wa ...

'', who also ordered three. The German aircraft were taken over by the British at the outbreak of 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 ...

. Orders for a further seven Improved Navyplane Type A.I followed, these having a stronger airframe, folding wings and an 8 ft (2.4 m) greater wingspan, but retaining the Salmson engine. A further four aircraft were built powered by a 225 hp (168 kW)

Sunbeam A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a beam of sunlight that appears to radiate from the position of the Sun. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains and buildings, these beams of particle-scattered sunl ...

engine, known as the Improved Navyplane Type A.II.London 1994, pp.73-74.

Operational history

The Navyplanes were used for maritime reconnaissance missions over the North Sea, while four of the Improved Navyplanes were sent to the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

to serve in the Gallipoli Campaign. The four Sunbeam-powered aircraft proved unsuccessful owing to unreliability of the powerplant, and only saw limited use.

Operators

; *

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

Specifications (Seaplane)

References

* * * *

Design and development

Operational history

Operators

Specifications (Seaplane)

References

See also