THE RAIDERS. A FLIGHT OF SEAPLANES SETTING OFF FOR A NIGHT BOMBING RAID.
This one’s got me stumped. It shows a flight of RNAS twin-engined seaplane bombers, but I haven’t been able to find anything with the same profile. Any ideas?
Image source: Harry Golding, ed., The Wonder Book of Aircraft for Boys and Girls (London: Ward, Lock & Co, 1919), facing 56.
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10 June 2008 at 4:24 am
George Shaner
To my eye it looks like a cross between a contemporary flying boat and some of the early floatplane torpedo bombers. I’d bet it’s a period flight of fancy.
10 June 2008 at 6:10 pm
Ian Evans
I agree with that assessment. There was a Short project design of 1919/20 (all metal) with a very similar layout, but rather more sophisticated floats.
14 June 2008 at 9:31 pm
Brett Holman
Thanks — the consensus over here is also that it’s not a real aeroplane. The idea didn’t even occur to me!
18 June 2008 at 2:40 am
Roger Horky
It looks like a Bristol F.2 Fighter on non-stepped floats. The vertical tail has the same rounded shape, but with a strake beneath. The fuselage is above the lower wing. The engine cowling has the same upsloped lower contour and level upper contour. It is clearly a two-seater (is that what you meant by twin-engined? “cos the painting clearly shows but one).
Of course, the Biff was a two-bay biplane, and the aircraft depicted is a single-bay. But I find that many non-specialist illustrators are more interested in impression than accuracy (ever seen a Dornier Do28 with its main gear retracted?–only in paintings by the uninitiated) so the painter may have been working from a photo of a Bristol, to which he added the floats.
18 June 2008 at 3:11 am
Brett Holman
It is indeed reminiscent of a Brisfit, but if you click on the picture to get a higher-res version, I think you’ll see that it is actually a two-engined aeroplane. Well, actually I can only see one engine nacelle clearly, but as it’s in the middle of the wing (attached by a close grouping of 4 struts, which the Bristol didn’t have) I think it’s a reasonable inference that there’s a second one on the other side :) And there’s perhaps a hint of another one on the far side as well.