Felixstowe F.5

Felixstowe F. 5 Stories

The Felixstowe F.5 series originated in England in the last year of the First World War (1918) as a militarized airship. Their design is attributed to Lieutenant John C. Potter of the Royal Navy (the "Seaplane Experiment Station" at Felixstowe - hence the name).

Porte had taken the Curtiss H. 12 (Curtiss Model H) airship and converted it into something better when designing his Felixstowe F. 2a series. The F. 2a series became the standard Royal Naval Air Service flying boats in World War I, and the successor, the F. 5, in the postwar period, which was defined as the "interwar" years (military and civilian forms).

Porte continued to develop the F. 2a design and eventually produced the Felixstowe F. 3 series. However, since the new design is larger and therefore heavier, it has poor handling while still benefiting from longer range and higher bomb load capacity - two great things for an airship quality. Thus, development continued and culminated in a complete redesign of the "F.5", essentially a design designed to combine the strengths of the previous two designs to create a single superior maritime patrol platform - albeit with improved quality , but made its maiden flight in May 1918. As shown in the prototype, the F.5 was designed to combine as many production elements as possible from the existing F.3 in order to keep costs down and keep quantities constant.

This resulted in the production version of the F.5 lacking much of the performance of the prototype, and the final product found it difficult to even match the performance of the previous F.2a and F.3, which was the best goal.

In any case, the F.5 became the standard flying boat of the RAF from 1918, although it was completely phased out during the First World War. The basic military boat F. 5 was produced as follows: Short Brothers (23 copies); Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company (17 examples); Gosport Aviation (10 examples); Dick, Kerr & Company (2 examples); Seaplane Experiment Station (1 example).

The

Felixstowe F.5 retains the elegant look consistent with the airships of that era and is best recognized for its hull-like hull. The hull is contoured where possible, with a bulbous lower portion for efficient water drainage, with few details that disrupt airflow.

The wings are set amidships and are essentially biplane with somewhat unequal spans, held in place by parallel bracing and connected to pontoons located on the outside. The engine is mounted between the upper and lower wing assemblies, away from the salt spray of the sea. The fuselage tapers upwards to the tail unit, which has a large-area angled vertical tail and a high-position large-area tail. The wires run from the stern to the empennage. The four crew members sit in the open-air cockpit, which accommodates two pilots (sitting side by side) and two machine gunners - one in the front circular cockpit for front mounting and the other in the other circular The cockpit is located between the two engine mounts in the middle of the boat.

Defensive armament is concentrated on a set of four Lewis aircraft machine guns, one mounted on a flexible stand in the nose and the other two (or three) Lewis machine guns mounted amidships. As a bomber, the F.5 can carry 4 x 230 lb bombs using four underwing bomb carriers. Power comes from two Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII series V12 inline-piston engines producing approximately 350 horsepower and providing rotating twin-bladed propellers.

Envision speeds up to 88 miles per hour, service capped at 6,800 feet, and a seven-hour battery life.

The F.5 base is in service with the Royal Air Force and the Royal Naval Air Service. In the RAF, it formed the stocks of the 230th, 231st, 232nd, 238th, 247th, 249th, 259th, 261st and 267th Squadrons.

When the US Navy commissioned the Model 1918, the Americans also took over production of the F.5. These are powered by two Liberty engines and are built by Curtiss (60 examples), the U.S. Naval Aircraft Factory in the United States (137 examples), and the Canadian Aircraft Corporation in Toronto, Canada (30 examples). The mounts powered by Liberty were designated "F.5L" and about 227 were built in total.

The F.5L was the U.S. Navy's primary flying boat until 1928 when it was replaced by the PN-12 series. After some modifications, the Curtiss F.5L also took on the role of a civilian aircraft.

These were operated by the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company under the company name "Aeromarine 75" from 1919. Carriers of this type include the United States and Argentina.

Japan produced 60 F.5s under license for its Imperial Japanese Navy, handled by the Hiro Naval Arsenal.

The F.5 served in the RAF until August 1925, when it was replaced by Supermarine Southampton.

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