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After testing as a landplane at
Brooklands in May/June 1911, the Water Bird was taken to Hill of Oaks on Windermere and the float fitted in place of the wheeled undercarriage. A pair of cylindrical floats was mounted below the wingtips for lateral stability on the water. The successful first flight
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for its first flight on 25 May 1911. It was a two-bay single-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 extending well behind the wing trailing edge. Bamboo outriggers fore and
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Large bodies of water appealed to several aviation pioneers in the first two decades of the 20th century since they offered large spaces for takeoff and emergency landings. Builders also anticipated naval interest. It emerged that one of the main problems was getting the floats to leave the water,
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A replica of Water Bird, operated by the Lakes Flying
Company, flew for the first time on 13 June 2022. A series of short flights on 13 and 14 June explored and confirmed the operating envelope and the handling characteristics of the aircraft on water and in the air, and paved the way for further
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by A.V. Roe, who would build aircraft to the designs of individual customers. It was built as a landplane with the intention of converting it to a seaplane once testing was complete. Wakefield had been interested in waterborne aircraft since 1909 and had performed experiments with different float
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Water Bird flew intensively during
December 1911 and January 1912, logging some 60 flights. The longest was for 20 miles, reaching 800 ft. In March 1912 Water Bird was destroyed in its lakeside hangar by a storm. Remnants of the aircraft (canard, float, rudder and tailplane) survived.
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A registered charity, The Lakes Flying
Company Ltd, was established in 2010, "to celebrate and to inform the public concerning the importance of the innovative contributions made to the development of naval and civil marine aeroplanes by Captain Edward Wakefield and by Waterbird".
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on floats and it left the water on 18 November 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness using stepped floats, but dropped back into the water and was damaged. It flew successfully in April 1912, although it was underpowered.
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aft of the wings supported leading elevators and tail surfaces plus rudder. Both elevator and rudder were operated by bamboo pushrods. Power was provided by a 50 hp (37 kW)
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in France and got useful advice on float design. The 12 ft (3.66 m) long float for the Water Bird followed Glen
Curtiss' float and was built by boat builders Borwick of
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flights later in 2022. The first public flight took place in
September 2022. The construction of the replica was the subject of a 2022
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designs towed at speed across Lake
Windermere. Unsticking problems persisted until he visited
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The replica seaplane, "Waterbird" takes off from Lake
Windermere, 14 June 2022
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The Lakes Water Bird was built in 1911 for E.W. Wakefield, of the Lakes Flying
Company,
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Jackson, A.J. (1965). "Avro
Aircraft since 1908" (Document). London: Putnam Publishing.
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and first flown on 26 January 1911 was the first practical seaplane. In England
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seven-cylinder rotary engine driving an 8 ft 6in (2.59 m) propeller.
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that is to "unstick". The first seaplane to fly, on 28 March 1910 at
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495:"Waterbird: Replica of UK's first seaplane flies over Windermere"
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The Lakes Flying Company Ltd, registered charity no. 1138624
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is remembered as the first consistently successful British
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Avro built the aircraft in Manchester, transporting it to
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211:Water Bird was succeeded by the Lakes-built
179:using mahogany with aluminium and canvas.
455:Charity Commission for England and Wales
517:"Warplane Workshop: Series 1 Episode 5"
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333:45 mph (72 km/h, 39 kn)
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284:36 ft 5 in (11.10 m)
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318:7-cylinder rotary , 50 hp (37 kW)
296:365 sq ft (33.9 m)
82:(as seaplane) 25 November 1911
600:Single-engined pusher aircraft
145:, though the machine built by
43:two seat experimental seaplane
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497:. BBC News. 23 September 2022
590:Aircraft first flown in 1911
402:Letter from H.F. Cowley to
308:1,130 lb (513 kg)
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475:. The Lakes Flying Company
240:documentary in the series
566:: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
302:780 lb (354 kg)
116:, sometimes known as the
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406:, 30 November 1961, p857
339:800 ft (244 m)
263:General characteristics
74:(float) E.W. Wakefield
27:British seaplane (1911)
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141:, France was built by
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177:Bowness-on-Windermere
102:Glenn Curtiss design
126:Lakes Flying Company
203:Operational history
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219:Legacy and replica
153:had put the first
118:Avro Curtiss-type,
519:. Channel 4. 2022
242:Warplane Workshop
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469:"Our vision"
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65:A.V. Roe Ltd
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324:Performance
316:Gnome Omega
312:Powerplant:
189:Gnome Omega
173:Henri Fabre
162:Development
143:Henri Fabre
35:Water Bird
579:Categories
346:References
294:Wing area:
184:Brooklands
168:Windermere
132:Background
523:10 August
479:10 August
288:Wingspan:
276:Capacity:
253:Data from
238:Channel 4
213:Water Hen
139:Martigues
114:Waterbird
71:Designer
595:Biplanes
122:seaplane
282:Length:
553:Flight
433:Flight
404:Flight
155:Type D
351:Notes
270:Crew:
40:Role
568:link
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314:1 ×
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