Franco-British Aviation (usually known by its initials FBA) was an aircraft manufacturer of the early 20th century, headquartered in London and with its production facilities around Paris. Specialising in

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

s, it was established in 1913 by Louis Schreck and André Beaumont.

History

The company was established in 1913 by Louis Schreck and André Beaumont. Louis Schreck was technical director of the French subsidiary in

Argenteuil Argenteuil () is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Argenteuil is a sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise department, the seat of the arrondissement of Argenteuil. Argenteuil is the sec ...

. The first activity of the company was the development of a flying boat hull derived from Donnet-Leveque Type A. The aircraft, a biplane with a single engine mounted between the wings with a pusher propeller, was originally called FBA-Leveque, then it was renamed FBA Type A. It is from this first model that the manufacturer derived various models that would be used by the forces of

Triple Entente The Triple Entente (from French '' entente'' meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well a ...

: France, United Kingdom and the Russian Empire. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the company produced large numbers of small flying boats for the navies of France, Russia, Italy, and the UK.Mondey, David. ''The International Encyclopedia of Aviation''. New York: Crown, 1977, , p. 220. Following the war, the company was reorganised as Hydravions Louis Schreck FBA as a purely French concern and continued building aircraft in the same class. One of these, the FBA 17, sold in quantity. In 1922, Émile Paumier became technical director and developed the brand models from the FBA model Type 10. From the Type 19 on, the company abandoned the conventional configuration with pusher propeller to finally adopt the tractor propeller. The company could not repeat its wartime successes. The lack of orders, especially for civilian models, led to production being stopped in 1931. In 1934, on the verge of collapse, the workshops of the factory were sold to Bernard. Bernard was also struggling and itself failed later in 1935.

Aircraft

References

{{Defunct aircraft manufacturers of France Multinational aircraft manufacturers Defunct aircraft manufacturers of France Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1935 French companies established in 1913 1913 establishments in England 1934 disestablishments in France France–United Kingdom relations British companies established in 1913 Manufacturing companies established in 1913 1934 disestablishments in England Manufacturing companies based in London British companies disestablished in 1934