Gosport Aircraft Company

{{Infobox company

| name = Gosport Aircraft Company

| logo =

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| type = Privately held company

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| fate = Out of business c. 1919

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| foundation = c.1914

| founder =

| defunct = 1920

| location_city = Gosport, Hampshire

| location_country = United Kingdom

| location =

| locations = 3

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| key_people = Sir Charles Allom
Charles Ernest Nicholson
Magnus Herman Volk AFRAeS
John Cyril Porte
Lt.-Col. Ralph Hope-Vere. AFC{{cite web|last1=Gosport Aircraft and Engineering Company|title=1920: Gosport Aircraft Co|url=http://www.aviationancestry.co.uk/?advert/&advertId=11249|website=Aviation Ancestry|publisher=The Aeroplane|accessdate=10 February 2017|date=7 July 1920}}{{cite journal|title=Awarded the Air Force Cross.|journal=Supplement to the London Gazette|date=1 January 1919|page=97|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Ralph-Jean-James-Hope-Vere/6000000052102538894|accessdate=10 February 2017}}
Francis Percy Beadle{{cite web|last1=Moss|first1=Roger|title=Francis Percy Hyde Beadle|url=http://britishaviation-ptp.com/fph_beadle.html|website=British Aviation - Projects to Production|accessdate=10 February 2017}}

| industry = Aerospace

| products = Flying boats

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}}

The Gosport Aircraft Company was a short-lived British aircraft manufacturer based at Gosport, Hampshire formed at the start of the First World War by Sir Charles Allom of White, Allom & Company and Charles Ernest Nicholson of Camper and Nicholsons boat-builders. The company built a number of flying-boats for the British government including the hull for the Fairey Atalanta which at the time was the largest flying-boat hull built in the world.{{cite magazine|magazine=Flight|date=10 April 1919|title=The Largest Flying-Boat Hull in the World|page=481|url=

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1919/1919%20-%200481.html}}{{cite book |last1=Dear |first1=Ian |title=Camper and Nicholson: 200 Years of Yacht Building |date=19 December 2001 |publisher=Quiller Press |isbn=978-1899163649 |pages=69–74}}

Aircraft

The hulls were built at the Camper and Nicholsons Gosport Yard and towed round to Northam to complete the assembly

FBA Type B pusher biplane patrol flying boat, flying surfaces for sixty built for the RNAS.
Felixstowe F.5 tractor biplane patrol flying boat, cancelled by the RAF in January 1919 after ten from an order of fifty delivered.

Projects

Following the end of the First World War, the company proposed a number of designs published 31 July 1919 in Flight magazine:{{cite magazine|magazine=Flight|date=31 July 1919|title=The Gosport Flying-Boats|page=1006|url=

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1919/1919%20-%201004.html}}

Gosport Fire Fighter - a 10-seater flying boat designed to carry men and material to the scene of a forest fire or emergency based on the Felixstowe F.5.
Gosport Mail - a six passenger luxury flying boat for long distance passenger, mail and goods-carrying based on the Norman Thompson N.T.4A.
Gosport Patrol Boat - a two-seater flying boat for use as a fast patrol or police boat.
Gosport Two-seater Touring Boat - a flying boat with a tail boom for the American market.
Gosport Popular - a touring flying boat.
Gosport Shrimp - a single-seat flying boat.

In December 1919 a number of larger flying-boats were proposed, designed by John Porte who joined the company in August 1919:{{cite magazine|magazine=Flight|date=25 December 1919|title=Some Gosport Flying Boats for 1920|pages=1657–1658|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1919/1919%20-%201656.html}}

File:Gosport G.5 G (2).jpg

Gosport G5 - a twin-engined biplane flying boat with a 103 ft span and a length of 49 ft 3in, for two crew and six passengers or cargo based on the Felixstowe F.5.
Gosport G5a - a smaller variant of the G5 with a 97 ft 6in span and only 46 ft in length.
Gosport G8 - a biplane flying boat for one pilot and three-passengers.
Gosport G8a - a biplane flying boat similar to the G8.
Gosport G9 - a triplane three-engined flying boat for long distance cargo work or ten passengers and three crew, with a 113 foot wingspan. A commercial version of Porte's Felixstowe FuryFlight [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1955/1955%20-%201808.html "Felixstowe Flying Boats" p.931] 23 December 1955

With the death of Porte in October 1919 none of the flying boats proposed were built, and by the middle of 1920 the company had closed.

References

File:Gosport Aircraft Company advertisement 1919.jpg

Category:Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom