Gosport Aircraft Company

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Gosport Aircraft Company
TypePrivately held company
IndustryAerospace
Foundedc.1914
Defunct1920
FateOut of business c. 1919
Headquarters
Gosport, Hampshire
,
United Kingdom
Number of locations
3
Key people
Sir Charles Allom
Charles Ernest Nicholson
Magnus Herman Volk AFRAeS
John Cyril Porte
Lt.-Col. Ralph Hope-Vere. AFC[1][2]
Francis Percy Beadle[3]
ProductsFlying boats

The Gosport Aircraft Company was a short-lived British aircraft manufacturer based at Gosport, Hampshire formed at the start of the First World War by Sir Charles Allom of White, Allom & Company and Charles Ernest Nicholson of boat-builders. The company built a number of flying-boats for the British government including the hull for the Fairey Atalanta which at the time was the largest flying-boat hull built in the world.[4]

Aircraft[]

  • FBA Type B pusher biplane patrol flying boat, flying surfaces for sixty built for the RNAS.
  • Felixstowe F.5 tractor biplane patrol flying boat, cancelled by the RAF in January 1919 after ten from an order of fifty delivered.

Projects[]

Advertisement, January 1919

Following the end of the First World War, the company proposed a number of designs published 31 July 1919 in Flight magazine:[5]

  • Gosport Fire Fighter - a 10-seater flying boat designed to carry men and material to the scene of a forest fire or emergency based on the Felixstowe F.5.
  • Gosport Mail - a six passenger luxury flying boat for long distance passenger, mail and goods-carrying based on the Norman Thompson N.T.4A.
  • Gosport Patrol Boat - a two-seater flying boat for use as a fast patrol or police boat.
  • Gosport Two-seater Touring Boat - a flying boat with a tail boom for the American market.
  • Gosport Popular - a touring flying boat.
  • Gosport Shrimp - a single-seat flying boat.

In December 1919 a number of larger flying-boats were proposed, designed by John Porte who joined the company in August 1919:[6]

  • Gosport G5 - a twin-engined biplane flying boat with a 103 ft span and a length of 49 ft 3in, for two crew and six passengers or cargo based on the Felixstowe F.5.
  • Gosport G5a - a smaller variant of the G5 with a 97 ft 6in span and only 46 ft in length.
  • Gosport G8 - a biplane flying boat for one pilot and three-passengers.
  • Gosport G8a - a biplane flying boat similar to the G8.
  • Gosport G9 - a triplane three-engined flying boat for long distance cargo work or ten passengers with three crew, which would have had a 113 foot wingspan. A commercial version of Porte's Felixstowe Fury[7]

With the death of Porte in October 1919 none of the flying boats proposed were built, and by the middle of 1920 the company had closed.

References[]

  1. ^ Gosport Aircraft and Engineering Company (7 July 1920). "1920: Gosport Aircraft Co". Aviation Ancestry. The Aeroplane. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Awarded the Air Force Cross". Supplement to the London Gazette: 97. 1 January 1919. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  3. ^ Moss, Roger. "Francis Percy Hyde Beadle". British Aviation - Projects to Production. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  4. ^ "The Largest Flying-Boat Hull in the World". Flight. 10 April 1919. p. 481.
  5. ^ "The Gosport Flying-Boats". Flight. 31 July 1919. p. 1006.
  6. ^ "Some Gosport Flying Boats for 1920". Flight. 25 December 1919. pp. 1657–1658.
  7. ^ Flight "Felixstowe Flying Boats" p.931 23 December 1955
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