The Lakes Waterbird, sometimes known as the Avro Curtiss type is remembered as the first consistently successful British seaplane, developed by the Windemere based Lakes Flying Co

Lakes Flying Company

The Lakes Flying Company was an early British aircraft manufacturer of seaplanes based at Windermere. In 1914 it was taken over by the Northern Aircraft Company Limited.-History:...

, during 1911.

Development

Large bodies of water appealed to several aviation pioneers in the first two decades of the 20th century since they offered large spaces for take-off and emergency landings. Builders also anticipated naval interest. It emerged that one of the main problems was getting the floats to leave the water, that is to "unstick". The first seaplane to fly, on 28th March 1910 at Martigues

Martigues

Martigues is a commune northwest of Marseille. It is part of the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the eastern end of the Canal de Caronte....

, France was built by Henri Fabre

Henri Fabre

Henri Fabre was a French aviator and the inventor of Le Canard, the first seaplane in history.Henri Fabre was born into a prominent family of shipowners in the city of Marseilles. He was educated in the Jesuit College of Marseilles, where he undertook advanced studies in sciences. He then studied...

, though the machine built by Glenn Curtiss

Glenn Curtiss

Glenn Hammond Curtiss was an American aviation pioneer and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle then motorcycle builder and racer, later also manufacturing engines for airships as early as 1906...

 and first flown on 26th January 1911 was the first practical seaplane. In England A.V.Roe & Co had put the first Type D

Avro Type D

-References:* Lewis, P British Aircraft 1809-1914. London, Putnam, 1962* Jackson, A.J. Avro Aircraft Since 1908. London, Putnam, 1965...

 on floats and it left the water on 18th November 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness using stepped floats, but dropped back into the water and was damaged. It flew successfully in April 1912, though always underpowered.

Background

The Lakes Waterbird was built for 1911 E.W. Wakefield, of the Lakes Flying School, Windermere

Windermere

Windermere is the largest natural lake of England. It is also a name used in a number of places, including:-Australia:* Lake Windermere , a reservoir, Australian Capital Territory * Lake Windermere...

. by A.V. Roe, who would build aircraft to the designs of individual customers. It was to be built as a landplane but with the intention of converting it to a seaplane once testing was complete. Wakefield had been interested in water-borne aircraft since 1909 and had performed experiments with different float designs towed at speed across Windermere. Unsticking problems persisted until he visited Henri Fabre in France and got useful advice. The 12 ft (3.66 m) long float for the Waterbird followed Glen Curtiss' three-step float was built by boat builders Borwick of Bowness-on-Windermere

Bowness-on-Windermere

Bowness-on-Windermere is a town in South Lakeland, Cumbria, England. Due its position on the banks of Windermere the town has become a tourist honeypot. Although their mutual growth has caused them to become one large settlement, the town is distinct from the town of Windermere as the two still...

 of mahogany reinforced with metal strips and canvas covered by local.

Avro built the aircraft in Manchester, transporting it to Brooklands

Brooklands

Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world's first purpose-built motorsport venue, as well as one of Britain's first airfields...

 for its first flight on 19th May 1911. It was a two-bay seat pusher biplane with wings of unequal span. The outer half of each upper wing carried a pair of ailerons; the larger inner one had a semicircular trailing edge protruding well behind the wing trailing edge. Bamboo outriggers fore and aft of the wings supported leading elevators and tail surfaces plus rudder respectively; the pitch and yaw surfaces were operated via bamboo poles. Power was provided by a 50 hp (37 kW) Gnome 7-cylinder rotary engine driving an 8 ft 6in (2.59 m) propeller.

After testing as a landplane from May 1911, Water Bird was brought to the Hill of Oaks on Windermere and the single float fitted in place of the wheeled undercarriage. A pair of cylindrical floats was mounted below the wing-tips for lateral stability on the water. The successful first flight was on 25 November 1911, with ex-Avro school pilot H. Stanley Adams.

Operational history

Water Bird flew intensively during December 1911 and January 1912. logging some 60 flights. The longest was for 20 miles, reaching 800 ft. Joyriding passengers were carried through the Winter, but in March 1912 Water Bird was destroyed in its lakeside hangar by a storm. Remnants of the aircraft (float, rudder and tailplane) survived until at least 1961.

Water Bird was succeeded by the Lakes-built Water Hen, their first complete product. It was initially almost identical to its predecessor apart from straight edged ailerons. Larger, later modifications removed much of the similarity between the two aircraft, the later Water Hen having a much wider central float.

Specifications