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 (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...
established an R.N. Aeroplane Repair Depot on the
Isle of Grain
Isle of Grain (Old English ''Greon'', meaning gravel) is a village and the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula within the unitary authority, district of Medway in Kent, south-east England. Once an island and now forming part of the peninsul ...
on the
River Medway
The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
Estuary in
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
in early 1915. As there was already a RNAS seaplane base on the Isle of Grain, the Depot was named Port Victoria, after the nearby
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
. It became the Marine Aircraft Experimental Depot,
[Bruce in ''Flight'', 29 November 1957, p.846.] comprising 3 sections:
*Experimental Construction Depot
*Seaplane Test Depot
*Experimental Armament Section
It was renamed ''Marine and Armament Experimental Establishment'' on 16 March 1920 in recognition of the fact that weapons and other equipment were evaluated as well as complete aircraft. It was renamed again on 1 March 1924 to the
Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment
The Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment (MAEE) was a British military research and test organisation. It was originally formed as the Marine Aircraft Experimental Station in October 1918 at RAF Isle of Grain, a former Royal Naval Air Serv ...
and eventually moved to
Felixstowe
Felixstowe ( ) is a port town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, containe ...
.
While at Port Victoria it designed a range of experimental aircraft, not all of which were constructed and flown.
Port Victoria aircraft types
*
P.V.1
*
P.V.2
*
P.V.3 - Design only, not produced
*
P.V.4
*
P.V.5
*
P.V.5A
*
P.V.7
*
P.V.8
*
P.V.9
*
Grain Griffin
The Grain Griffin was a British carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft developed and built by the RNAS Marine Experimental Depot, Port Victoria, during the First World War. A development of the unsuccessful Sopwith B.1 bomber, the Grain Griff ...
References
*Bruce, J.M.
The Sopwith Tabloid,Schneider and Baby: Historic Military Aircraft No.17 Part IV. ''
Flight
Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...
'', 29 November 1957. pp. 845–848.
{{Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom
Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom
History of Kent
Medway
Royal Navy shore establishments