The Short Admiralty Type 74 was a single-engined

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

tractor

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

with non-folding wings, which saw service with the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...

during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Design and development

The Type 74 incorporated some of the innovations

Horace Short Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC),Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The r ...

had introduced to the

Short Admiralty Type 42 The Short S.41 was a British single-engined biplane built for the Royal Navy in 1912. Capable of being operated either on wheels or floats, it was successful enough for a further two similar aircraft to be built, with the type remaining in use ...

, including manganese-steel tube struts instead of wood. In addition to the two main rubber-sprung floats below the fuselage and the single tail float, it also had smaller floats attached below the lower wingtips.

Aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...

s were mounted on the upper wing only, the latter extending beyond the span of the lower wing. The extensions were braced by diagonal struts to the lower wingtips. Since it was intended for use as a coastal patrol seaplane operating from coastal stations, there was no requirement for the Type 74 to have

folding wing A folding wing is a wing configuration design feature of aircraft to save space and is typical of carrier-based aircraft that operate from the limited deck space of aircraft carriers. The folding allows the aircraft to occupy less space in a co ...

s.The aircraft sometimes referred to by the Admiralty as the "Short Improved Type 74" was in fact a folder version of the prototype Short Type 135; three such aircraft took part in the

Cuxhaven Raid The Raid on Cuxhaven (, Christmas Raid) was a British ship-based air-raid on the Imperial German Navy at Cuxhaven mounted on Christmas Day, 1914. Aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service were carried to within striking distance by seaplane tend ...

. The Type 74 was powered by a 100 hp (74.6 kW) Gnome double Omega engine, which provided a maximum flight duration of five hours.Barnes and James, p.99.

Operational history

In 1913 the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

ordered seven 100 hp biplane seaplanes from Shorts, which were assigned the company's serial numbers ''69-75''. The first of these flew on 4 January 1914, piloted by

Gordon Bell Chester Gordon Bell (August 19, 1934 – May 17, 2024) was an American electrical engineer and manager. An early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), from 1960–1966, Bell designed several of their PDP machines and later served as ...

, Chief Test Pilot at Shorts. He was accompanied on this first flight by

Charles Richard Fairey Sir Charles Richard Fairey (5 May 1887 – 30 September 1956), also known as Richard Fairey, was an English aircraft manufacturer. Early life Charles Fairey was born on 5 May 1887 in Hendon, Middlesex and educated at the Merchant Taylors' Sc ...

(later Sir Richard Fairey), who left Shorts in

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 * ...

to found the

Fairey Aviation The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes, Hillingdon, Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire that designed important military aircraft ...

company. When this first aircraft was delivered to the Royal Navy air station on the

Isle of Grain Isle of Grain (Old English ''Greon'', meaning gravel) is a village and the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula within the unitary authority, district of Medway in Kent, south-east England. Once an island and now forming part of the peninsul ...

it received the Navy's serial number ''74'', so this and the remaining six aircraft from the batch (Navy numbers ''74-80'') were therefore known as the Admiralty Type 74 according to the rules in use at the time. Of the seven aircraft, four (including Naval nos. ''75'' and ''79'') were dispatched to the air station at

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, the other three remaining at the Grain air station. The Dundee aircraft took part in the 1914 Royal Fleet Review off Spithead as part of a contingent of 17 seaplanes and four airships.

Operators

; *

Design and development

Operational history

Operators

Specifications

References

Further reading