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Страна: Великобритания

Год: 1916

Single-engine, single- or two-seat, two-bay biplane reconnaissance torpedo bomber seaplane

C.Barnes Short Aircraft since 1900 (Putnam)

Short 310 hp Seaplanes, 1916-19

   When the Short 184 failed to repeat its first operational success as a torpedo-plane, due mainly to insufficient power in reserve to cope with both a torpedo and ample fuel, particularly in hot weather, Capt Murray Sueter and Lieut Hyde Thomson realised that they would have to face the complication of twin engines or wait for a power unit giving at least 300 hp, preferably at a weight no greater than that of current 200 hp engines. Early experience with the Wight twin-fuselage torpedo seaplane had provided only double trouble with no advantage in performance, plus an unnecessarily large aircraft for the task. Nevertheless, a twin-engined prototype torpedo-seaplane with 225 hp Sunbeam engines was ordered from the Blackburn Aeroplane Co and Louis Coatalen was urged to press on with the development of a 300 hp Sunbeam engine in competition with the rapidly improving Rolls-Royce Eagle; all supplies of the latter were already earmarked for bombers (D.H.4 and Handley Page O/100) and for Curtiss and Porte flying-boats which had begun to prove their ability to fight off and destroy Zeppelins at long range. The Admiralty’s objectives of torpedoing the German and Austrian fleets in their respective anchorages at Wilhelmshaven and Pola had to yield priority to the urgent needs of the Western Front and North Sea battles, and consequently no Rolls-Royce Eagles could be spared for float seaplanes in 1916.
   Meanwhile, Horace and Oswald Short prepared two designs based on the new Sunbeam engine; the first was a cleaned-up and strengthened torpedo-seaplane of almost the same size as the Mann Egerton Type B, with a roomier fuselage, increased chord and gap and similar wing arrangement; the second was a patrol seaplane with the same fuselage and chassis as the first, but having equal-span three-bay wings analogous to Type 184. Two prototypes of each were ordered as a batch of four, the torpedo-planes (310 Type A) being S.299-300 (serials 8317-8318) and the patrol seaplanes (310 Type B) being S.311-312 (serials 8319-8320); the latter were alternatively known as ‘North Sea Scouts’. The Sunbeam engine, later named Cossack, was rated at 310 hp (normal) and 320 hp (maximum), but in production batches the normal rating was soon raised to 320 hp. Maximum priority was accorded to the torpedo version, once the engines were available, with a view to putting them to use in the Adriatic as soon as possible. General design features were similar to the 184’s, but the 18-in Mark IX torpedo (weighing 1,000 lb against the 810 lb of the 14-in Whitehead) was carried close under the belly of the fuselage. The rear cross-strut of the float chassis was made detachable to permit a clear passage when the torpedo was launched, and extra struts were provided to secure the inner faces of the floats while the cross-strut was removed. The engine installation was generally similar to that of the 260 hp Sunbeam in the 184, with the same block radiator above and an auxiliary radiator and oil cooler on the port side of the fuselage between the wings; in later production batches the main radiator was enlarged and the auxiliary unit deleted. At first the central exhaust manifold had a downswept stack, but this resulted in fumes in the cockpit and only after various vertical and lateral pipes had been tried was the final stack, upswept and canted to port, found satisfactory; for a time the prototypes had a parallel pair of pipes close together. The prototypes had four-bladed airscrews, but two-bladers were standard on production aircraft. The pilot occupied the rear cockpit, to obviate the need for ballast under a variety of loading conditions, and the front cockpit provided all the normal stowages and equipment for the observer, including W/T; in later batches there was also a Scarff ring mounted on struts level with the upper-wing trailing edge, which gave the observer a clear field of fire for a Lewis gun, but was a position of great exposure for which no alternative could be found; however, the observer could not be carried at the same time as a torpedo.
   The first prototype was ready for flight at Rochester in July 1916, and the second in August, both being first flown by Ronald Kemp. After acceptance, the two prototypes were urgently dispatched to the R.N.A.S. seaplane base at Otranto, where it was intended to station 12 of the type, but during early torpedo trials both seaplanes broke up in the air. At first it was thought that the rebound from suddenly releasing so great a weight might have been responsible for structural failure, but the defect was traced to the rear float attachment; this was redesigned with modified floats pitched farther apart and extra struts bracing the floats to the lower wings; the extra float struts were V-shaped welded tube assemblies which swung down when released for wing folding; a notice prominently painted on both sides of the fuselage read: ’Very Important: The Removable Rear Crossbar Must always be in Position Before the Wings are Folded’’, in this form the aircraft was designated the 310-A4. The second 310-B (S.312) was converted during construction into an additional 310-A4 in February 1917 and renumbered N1480. Production had already begun at Rochester with a batch of 30 (S.354-363, N1150-1159, and S.334-353, N1300-1319) for urgent delivery to Otranto and Malta, to be followed by batches of 24 (S.365-388, N1481-1504) and 20 (S.399-418, N1390-1409). Concurrently a contract was placed with Sunbeam for batches of 30 (N1360-1389) and 20 (N1690-1709) respectively; it seems that the final batches from Short Bros and Sunbeam were exchanged, probably to ease temporary supply difficulties. No later production was undertaken because official policy had changed in favour of deck-landing torpedo-planes, following successful trials after the second refit of H.M.S. Furious. On its first operation the 310-A4 was robbed of success by a sudden gale which wrecked all six of those detailed for a torpedo attack on the night of 3 September, 1917, against a flotilla of enemy submarines off Cattaro in the Adriatic. To conserve fuel, they were towed on rafts to Traste Bay, where they arrived successfully but were capsized by a sudden storm at 4 am, just at zero hour for take-off; so the opportunity passed, and no other chance presented itself within the capability of the aircraft for several months. Then, in January 1918, the German cruiser Goeben made a bolt for freedom through the Dardanelles but ran aground at Nagara Burnu; while stuck fast, she was repeatedly bombed without effect by the R.N.A.S., and two 310-A4s, with torpedoes, were hastily embarked on Manxman, but arrived too late to join in the attack, for after a week the Goeben’s crew refloated her and she escaped to shelter in the Bosphorus.
   To improve experience of torpedo launching, a series of trials were run at Calshot in February 1918, in which 40 torpedoes were launched by four 310-A4s; only three weapons were lost, and the lessons learned were put to use at the Torpedo School at Kalafrana, Malta. The majority of the 310-A4s in service were used in the long-range patrol role, when they had an endurance of six hours while carrying a crew of two and two 230-lb bombs. No submarine kill by a 310-A4 was ever confirmed, although a probable was scored by one from Kalafrana on a U-boat which attacked a French battleship off Malta on 8 February, 1918. The total number of 310-As built was 127, of which 50 remained in service with the R.A.F. at the Armistice; N1404 and N1409 were in use at Grain for experimental work in June 1918, and six, believed to be S.370-375 (N1485-1490), were supplied to the Imperial Japanese Navy for training and trials at the end of 1917.
   The 310-B, completed in September 1916, was not adopted for production, being not a sufficient improvement on the 184. Possibly if all the torpedo-seaplanes had been needed in their original role there would have been some justification for a structurally similar long-range Scout, but, with no niche to fill, the prototype S.311 (8319) was used in April 1917 only for air-firing trials at Grain of a 6-pounder Davis recoilless gun, arranged to fire upwards and forwards as an anti-Zeppelin weapon. It was mounted on a trammel across the rear cockpit, which also had a Lewis gun for self-defence; the pilot was in front as in the 184, which the 310-B closely resembled in layout, although it was bigger all round and its deeper fuselage gave better protection to the crew. For some reason, no doubt to improve the pilot’s view ahead as well as to avoid muzzle blast damage from the Davis gun, the top centre-section was left open and the radiator was separated laterally into two parallel blocks, with a clear space in the middle. The gun was a later model of that tested at Great Yarmouth in 1915 on Short pusher S.81 (726), but was still a single-shot type incapable of being reloaded in the air; in any case it could only be aimed at an angle to the flight path, so it was quite unsuitable for aerial use, even when directed downwards as an anti-submarine weapon.

Type 310-A4 - Span 75 ft (22-85 m); length 45 ft 9 in (13-9 in); area 810 sq ft (75-3 m2); empty weight 4,900 lb (2,222 kg); all-up weight 7,020 lb (3,185 kg); max speed 79 mph (127 km/h); duration 6 hr.
Type 310-B - Span 68 ft 6 in (20-85 m); area 800 sq ft (74-4 tn2); max speed 72 mph (116 km/h); all other data as for Type 310-A4.

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Описание:

  • C.Barnes Short Aircraft since 1900 (Putnam)
  • F.Manson British Bomber Since 1914 (Putnam)
  • P.Lewis British Bomber since 1914 (Putnam)
  • P.Lewis The British Fighter since 1912 (Putnam)
  • J.Bruce British Aeroplanes 1914-1918 (Putnam)
  • O.Thetford Aircraft of the Royal Air Force since 1918 (Putnam)
  • O.Thetford British Naval Aircraft since 1912 (Putnam)
  • H.King Armament of British Aircraft (Putnam)
  • J.Bruce - British Aeroplanes 1914-1918 /Putnam/

    The first prototype Short Type 310A, S.299, No 8317, carrying a torpedo at Rochester in July 1916. The figure on the extreme right ts Oswald Short.

  • J.Bruce - British Aeroplanes 1914-1918 /Putnam/

    Production Short 320 with torpedo slung.

  • O.Thetford - Aircraft of the Royal Air Force since 1918 /Putnam/

    Short Type 310-A4, N1393, taxying with an 18in torpedo. The pilot's forward field of view must have been minimal.
    The Short Brothers Company, established in November 1908, had enjoyed a long standing good relationship with the Admiralty's Air Department and especially with its visionary head. Murray F Sueter. Between 1912 and 1914, Shorts had developed a series of tractor-engined seaplanes, culminating in the first of the so-called Short 'Folders', of which the Admiralty had bought 25. Thus, at the outbreak of war in early August 1914, Shorts were already established as the leading supplier of naval seaplanes in Britain. These early seaplanes, one of which had been the first British aircraft to loft and drop a torpedo on 27 July 1914, were followed by the Short Admiralty Type 166 and other small run series precursors to the seemingly ubiquitously built and deployed, torpedo-carrying Short Admiralty Type 184 that emerged in the spring of 1915. More than 650 of these two seaters were to be produced by Shorts and 10 sub-contractors. Incidentally, the first Type 184s to be deployed served aboard HMS Ben-My-Cree from June 1915. Indeed, the Type 184 was the first ever aircraft to sink a ship by torpedo, on 17 August 1915, albeit that the ship in question was a tug boat attacked while the aircraft was taxiing in the Aegean Sea, where the high temperatures reduced performance considerably. Aware of this grave limitation, Sueter sought solutions via two routes, the first being to contract for the design of twin-engined types such as the Blackburn GP, while beseeching sympathetic engine suppliers to produce a power unit with sufficient output to make a single-engined torpedo-carrier a real possibility. In the case of Shorts, it was the emergence of an engine adequate to the task that did the trick, leading to their two-seat Short Admiralty Type 310, a more powerful development of the Type 184. First flown in July 1916 and powered by the 320hp Sunbeam Cossack, the Type 310 could carry a 1,000lb, 18 inch torpedo when cruising at around 68mph, while the top level speed at sea level, without torpedo was 79mph. Ironically, by the time the Type 310 was ready for service use its primary role had been given over to carrier-based landplane types, such as the Sopwith Cuckoo, with the result that the Short seaplane's mission was switched to over-water patrolling. Seen here is serial no N1303, the 14th Type 310 to be built by Shorts, who, incidentally, were to supply six of these machines to the Japanese Navy at the end of 1917.

  • O.Thetford - British Naval Aircraft since 1912 /Putnam/

    Short Type 320 (N1498) built by Short Brothers.

  • C.Barnes - Short Aircraft since 1900 /Putnam/

    Production 310-A4 N1397 ready for launching at Rochester in January 1918.

  • F.Mason - British Bomber since 1914 /Putnam/

    Short-built production Type 310-A4, N1397, showing the position of the observer's gun ring in the trailing edge of the upper wing. Note also the additional I-struts between the rear of the main floats and the wing beneath the inboard interplane struts. The beautifully executed inscription on the fuselage below the pilot's cockpit reads: 'Very Important: The Removable Rear Crossbar Must always be in Position Before the Wings are Folded'.

  • C.Barnes - Short Aircraft since 1900 /Putnam/

    Ronald Kemp in N1150 at Rochester in February 1917; note slender vertical exhaust stack.

  • P.Lewis - British Bomber since 1914 /Putnam/

    Short 320 N1397.
    View of a Type 310-A4 which well illustrates the wings' considerable overhang. Production aircraft reverted to two-blade propellers.

  • H.King - Armament of British Aircraft /Putnam/

    На берегу гидросамолеты перемещали на колесных тележках, крепившихся на тросах под задней частью поплавков, т.е. у центра тяжести самолета, благодаря чему удерживать хвост руками над землей было достаточно легко
    Short Type 320, showing installation of Scarff ring-mounting behind cut-out in top wing.

  • C.Barnes - Short Aircraft since 1900 /Putnam/

    N1152 being unfolded on the jetty at Rochester in February 1917, showing alternative position of slender exhaust stack.

  • J.Bruce - British Aeroplanes 1914-1918 /Putnam/

    Production Short 320, long-range reconnaissance version

  • J.Bruce - British Aeroplanes 1914-1918 /Putnam/

    The first and only 310-B (Short 310 h.p. Seaplane, Type B), S.311 (8319) at Rochester in September 1916.

  • C.Barnes - Short Aircraft since 1900 /Putnam/

    8319 about to take off for trials of 6-pounder Davis gun at Grain in April 1917.

  • Jane's All The World Aircraft 1919 /Jane's/

    A Short Seaplane (320 h.p. Sunbeam engine) in the Japanese Naval Air Service.