Wight Converted Seaplane
Encyclopedia
The Wight Converted Seaplane was a British
twin-float patrol seaplane
produced by John Samuel White & Company Limited (Wight Aircraft).
wings. It had twin floats under the fuselage and additional floats at tail and wings tips. Initial production aircraft were powered by a 322 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle IV engine mounted in the nose driving a four-bladed propeller
, with later production batches being powered by a 265 hp (198 kW) Sunbeam Maori engine owing to shortages of Eagles. Fifty were ordered for the RNAS, of which only 37 were completed .
, Portland
and Cherbourg . On 18 August 1917, a Wight Converted Seaplane flying from Cherbourg sank the German
U-boat
UB-32 with a single 100 lb bomb, the first submarine to be sunk in the English Channel
by direct air action . Seven remained in service with the RAF at the end of the First World War
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
twin-float patrol seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
produced by John Samuel White & Company Limited (Wight Aircraft).
Design and development
Developed from the unsuccessful Wight Bomber for use as an anti-submarine patrol aircraft, the "Converted" Seaplane was a straightforward adaptation of the landplane bomber to a seaplane. The aircraft was a three-bay biplane with unswept, unequal span, unstaggeredStagger (aviation)
In aviation stagger refers to the horizontal positioning of a biplane, triplane, or multiplane's wings in relation to one another.An aircraft is said to have positive stagger, or simply stagger, when the upper wing is positioned forward of the lower wing, such as the de Havilland Tiger Moth or...
wings. It had twin floats under the fuselage and additional floats at tail and wings tips. Initial production aircraft were powered by a 322 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle IV engine mounted in the nose driving a four-bladed propeller
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
, with later production batches being powered by a 265 hp (198 kW) Sunbeam Maori engine owing to shortages of Eagles. Fifty were ordered for the RNAS, of which only 37 were completed .
Operational history
The Converted Seaplane entered service with the RNAS in 1917 , operating from bases at Calshot, DoverDover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
, Portland
Isle of Portland
The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...
and Cherbourg . On 18 August 1917, a Wight Converted Seaplane flying from Cherbourg sank the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
UB-32 with a single 100 lb bomb, the first submarine to be sunk in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
by direct air action . Seven remained in service with the RAF at the end of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.