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BRITAIN'S FIRST SEAPLANE

  
     
  Waterbird floats on Lake Windermere just outside a ramped hangar with a passenger sitting above the pilot close to the biplane's seven cylinder Gnome rotary engine. Although spinning the radial cylinders with the propeller provided efficient air cooling, the torque thus generated was to make many rotary engined aircraft of the Great War difficult to control.  
     
  Waterbird floats on Lake Windermere just outside a ramped hangar with a passenger sitting above the pilot close to the biplane's seven cylinder Gnome rotary engine. Although spinning the radial cylinders with the propeller provided efficient air cooling, the torque thus generated was to make many rotary engined aircraft of the Great War difficult to control.  
     
  While writing up my diorama depicting The Lost Flying Boats of Blackburn, Fairey and Supermarine I was given the following article written by Bethany Abbit from The Westmorland Gazette of Friday 25 July 2008:  
     
  A Kendal man plans to build an aviation museum in the Lake District to mark the centenary of England's first seaplane flight, which was made by his great uncle from Windermere.

Richard Rainsford hopes to create a 'living museum' on the shores of Windermere, in Bowness, to be known as the Lakes Flying Museum. He also want to build a replica of the seaplane Waterbird, which was launched from Windermere in November 1911 by his great uncle Edward Wakefield.

The wealthy Kendal landowner was the first man in England to successfully launch a seaplane. A week earlier, Commander Oliver Schwann had attempted to fly an Avro D floatplane from Barrow dockyard, but crashed.

Wakefield had decided to build a hydro-aeroplane to counter the number of fatal aviation accidents during the early 1900s.

"He got it into his head that if he could build an aeroplane that would take off and land in water, he could cut down the number of deaths" said Mr Rainsford, who is chief executive of the Waterbird Project. "He was wealthy enough to indulge in any whim or fancy and on November 25 1911 he launched the first truly successful water flight in Britain."

  
     
  Edward Wakefield's pioneering Waterbird speeds across Lake Windermere  
     
 

Edward Wakefield's pioneering Waterbird speeds across Lake Windermere

  
     
  In 1912, recognising the importance of aviation and seaplanes, the Royal Naval Air Service contracted Wakefield as the primary developer of seaplanes. Wakefield hired Stanley Herbert Adams as a pilot, mechanic and principal authority to develop the seaplane engines. Over the next two years a team of engineers worked on more than 22 different seaplane designs in secret under the guise of the Lakes Flying Company at the Hill of Oakes aviation factory in Bowness.

"This was the first time a civilian had ever worked for the military in this way and he was one of the first signatories asked to sign the Official Secrets Acts." said Mr Rainsford.

Despite the groundbreaking and important work that was going on in Windermere, two famous residents were unhappy about the noise and disruption from constant aeroplane testing.

"Beatrix Potter and Canon Rawnsley ( founder of the National Trust ) got upset with all this flying activity on Windermere and in 1912 put together a campaign," said Mr Rainsford "There was a real chance that my uncle's factory might be shut down. But Winston Churchill - who was Home Secretary at the time - said that the national interest was so important that there was no way my uncle would be cleared away from Windermere."

Wakefield continued to experiment on Windermere until war broke out in 1914 and he was stationed as a soldier in Italy. The Royal Naval Air Service continued testing on the lake throughout both world wars.

The waterbird Project committee has been set up as a charitable foundation and hopes to raise £ 5 million for the museum and £ 300 000 for the restoration of Waterbird.

Mr Rainsford said "Here in the Lake District we want a living museum which will house a number of seaplanes as well as Waterbird. We aim to fly her on November 25 2011, 100 years after my uncle and once or twice a year here on Windermere as a gift to Lakelanders. I think we can meet the time constraints because there is a tremendous motivation to get this done for 2011. I'd say the one thing people really want to see is these vintage early flying machines flying in the area and the Waterbird was a Lakeland invention by a Lakeland man with its first flight here"

The committee is trying to solve the problem of a suitable site for the museum on the shores of the lake. However, a more problematic concern members will have to overcome is the 10 mph speed limit on the lake.

  
     
  Waterbird in flight - perhaps a sight we shall see again!  
     
 

Waterbird in flight - perhaps a sight we shall see again!