| Felixstowe F.5 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Military flying boat |
| Manufacturer | Seaplane Experimental
Station (1) Short Brothers (23) Dick, Kerr & Co. (2) Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company (17) Gosport Aviation (10) |
| Designed by | J C Porte |
| First flight | May 1918 |
| Introduced | 1917 |
| Primary users | RNAS RAF US Navy (F5L) |
| Number built | 53 (F.5); 227 (F5L) |
| Developed from | Felixstowe F.2 |
| Variants | Felixstowe
F5L Hiro H1H |
The Felixstowe F.5 was a British First World War flying boat designed by Lieutenant Commander John Cyril Porte RN of the Seaplane Experimental Station, Felixstowe.
Contents |
Porte had designed a better hull for the larger Curtiss H12 flying boat, giving the Felixstowe F.2a, which was greatly superior to the original Curtiss boat. This entered production and service as a patrol aircraft. In February 1917, the first prototype of the Felixstowe F3 was flown. This was larger and heavier than the F2, giving it greater range and heavier bomb load, but poorer agility. The Felixstowe F5 was intended to combine the good qualities of the F2 and F3, with the prototype first flying in May 1918. The prototype showed superior qualities to its predecessors but the production version was modified to make extensive use of components from the F.3, in order to ease production, giving lower performance than either the F.2a or F.3.
The F5 did not enter service until after the end of World War I, but replaced the earlier Felixstowe boats (together with Curtiss flying boats) to serve as the RAF's standard flying boat until being replaced by the Supermarine Southampton in 1925.
In 1920. the Canadian Air Board sponsored a project to conduct the first ever Trans-Canada flight. The leg from Rivière du Loup to Winnipeg was flown by Lt.Col. Leckie and Maj. Hobbs in a Felixstowe F.3 to determine the feasibility of such flights for future air mail and passenger service.
Royal Air Force - generally formed from
RNAS flights.
Japan - (Post-war)
Data from Aircraft of the Royal Air Force[1]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Related development
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||
|
||||||||||||||
   | Felixstowe Flying-Boats - History of Felixstowe Flying-boats |
| | Smithsonian National Air and Space article on the F5L - National Air and Space Museum Collections Database |
| | The Felixstowe Flying-Boats: Historic Military Aircraft No. 11 Part 3 - john porte | felixstowe | 1955 | 1806 | Flight Archive |
| | The Felixstowe Flying-Boats: Historic Military Aircraft No. 11 Part 2 - curtiss | 1955 | 1772 | Flight Archive |
| | Smithsonian National Air and Space article on the F5L - Float, Felixstowe F5L - Long Description |
| | The Felixstowe Flying-Boats: Historic Military Aircraft No. 11 Part 1 - curtiss | 1955 | 1723 | Flight Archive |
|
|
Wikis
Map
Search
