Franco-British Aviation (usually known by its initials FBA) was an aircraft manufacturer of the early 20th century, headquartered in London and with its production facilities around Paris. Specialising in

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

s, it was established in 1913 by Louis Schreck and

André Beaumont Jean Louis Conneau (8 Feb 1880 Lodève, Hérault – 5 August 1937, Lodève), better known under the pseudonym André Beaumont, was a pioneer French people, French aviator, Naval Lieutenant and Flying boat manufacturer. Flying career Conneau ...

History

The company was established in 1913 by Louis Schreck and

. Louis Schreck was technical director of the French subsidiary in

Argenteuil Argenteuil () is a Communes of France, commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. Argenteuil is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise Departments of France, ...

. The first activity of the company was the development of a flying boat hull derived from Donnet-Leveque Type A. The aircraft, a biplane with a single engine mounted between the wings with a pusher propeller, was originally called FBA-Leveque, then it was renamed FBA Type A. It is from this first model that the manufacturer derived various models that would be used by the forces of

Triple Entente The Triple Entente (from French '' entente'' meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well a ...

: France, United Kingdom and the Russian Empire. During

World War I 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 ...

, the company produced large numbers of small flying boats for the navies of France, Russia, Italy, and the UK.Mondey, David. ''The International Encyclopedia of Aviation''. New York: Crown, 1977, , p. 220. Following the war, the company was reorganised as Hydravions Louis Schreck FBA as a purely French concern and continued building aircraft in the same class. One of these, the

FBA 17 The FBA 17 was a training flying boat produced in France in the 1920s. Design and development Similar in general layout to the aircraft that FBA had produced during World War I, the Type 17 was a conventional two-bay biplane with unequal-span, ...

, sold in quantity. In 1922, Émile Paumier became technical director and developed the brand models from the FBA model Type 10. From the Type 19 on, the company abandoned the conventional configuration with pusher propeller to finally adopt the tractor propeller. The company could not repeat its wartime successes. The lack of orders, especially for civilian models, led to production being stopped in 1931. In 1934, on the verge of collapse, the workshops of the factory were sold to

Bernard Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brav ...

. Bernard was also struggling and itself failed later in 1935.

Aircraft

References

{{Defunct aircraft manufacturers of France Multinational aircraft manufacturers Defunct aircraft manufacturers of France Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1935 French companies established in 1913 1913 establishments in England 1934 disestablishments in France France–United Kingdom relations British companies established in 1913 Manufacturing companies established in 1913 1934 disestablishments in England Manufacturing companies based in London British companies disestablished in 1934