Gosport Aircraft Company
Privately held company | |
Industry | Aerospace |
Fate | Out of business c. 1919 |
Founded | c.1914 |
Defunct | 1920 |
Headquarters | Gosport, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
Number of locations | 3 |
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
![](../I/m/Gosport_Aircraft_Company_advertisement_1919.jpg)
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 or emergency.
- Gosport Mail - a six passenger luxury flying boat for long distance passenger, mail and goods-carrying based on the Norman Thompson N.T.4A.
- 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.
- ↑ "The Gosport Flying-Boats". Flight: p.1006. 31 July 1919.
- ↑ "Some Gosport Flying Boats for 1920". Flight: pp.1657–1658. 25 December 1919.
- ↑ Flight "Felixstowe Flying Boats" p.931 23 December 1955