Gosport Aircraft Company
| Company type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | c.1914 |
| Defunct | c.1919 |
| Fate | Out of business c. 1919 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Sir Charles Allom Charles Ernest Nicholson John Cyril Porte Magnus H. Volk AFRAeS |
| Products | Flying 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 Camper and Nicholsons 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.[1]
Aircraft
- FBA Type B a pusher biplane flying boat, sixty-built for the Royal Naval Air Service.
- Felixstowe F.5 tractor biplane flying boat, fifty ordered but only ten delivered before the order was cancelled by the Royal Air Force in January 1919.
Projects
Following the end of the First World War, in July 1919 the company proposed a number of designs:[2]
- Gosport Fire Fighter - a 10-seater flying boat designed to carry men and material to the scene of a forest fire of emergency.
- 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.
Later in the year a number of larger flying-boats were proposed, designed by John Porte who joined the company in August 1919:[3]
- 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.
- 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[4]
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
- ^ "The Largest Flying-Boat Hull in the World". Flight: p.481. 10 April 1919.
{{cite journal}}:|page=has extra text (help) - ^ "The Gosport Flying-Boats". Flight: p.1006. 31 July 1919.
{{cite journal}}:|page=has extra text (help) - ^ "Some Gosport Flying Boats for 1920". Flight: pp.1657–1658. 25 December 1919.
{{cite journal}}:|page=has extra text (help) - ^ Flight "Felixstowe Flying Boats" p931 23 December 1955