April 2022
We were pleased to welcome Roger Smith from another local u3a to recount his memories of Sea Planes over Southampton Waters.
He showed us slides of very early Float planes which sat on the water and floated as stated in their names, and Flying boat planes which sat on the water on their fuselages in 1912. These were based at the south of the river Hamble where there were five airfields nearby to link in with this new innovation.
In 1913 the Admiralty established Brown’s aerodrome and in 1914 and set up a Marine Acceptance Depot in 1917 before WW1 ended. After the war had ended in 1922 this became the Shell Storage site and site for Fairey Aviation and allowed Sopwith planes to fly across the channel to Le Havre. By 1925 Far East flights to Australia and New Zealand via Singapore had started.
Hydro planes which could take off and land on water were operating in the mid 1930’s and were also used in WW2. After the war in 1947 Saunders-Roe built more seaplanes in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. In 1952 the SR Princess took 105 passengers on its first flight. The plane had 10 engines so was a very large heavy plane! It was scrapped in 1967.
Vickers Supermarine Works who produced the Spitfire during WW2 were also based nearby. They then became Vickers Armstrong and then part of the British Aircraft Organisation in the 1960’s.
These memories of early flight years were fascinating, now that we are all familiar with current day flights all around the world.