Windermere played key role in development of naval aviation

How the early pioneers of 1910 became the experts of a new war of waging war by 1918 was examined by Dr Graham Kemp in a talk to the North Lancashire branch of the Western Front Association.

Speaking at the City Museum in Lancaster - home of the military collection of the King's Own Regiment - he said that Admiral John Jellicoe, as Second Lord of the Admiralty had taken a keen interest as soon as the first aircraft took off from a ship in 1910.

In that year, the Aero Club put two aircraft at the disposal of the Admiralty and they formed the basis of the Naval Flying School at Eastchurch, near Sheppey.

The planes had stepped floats which made it possible to get a plane to take off from a lake or the sea and land safely.

Much of the development work on the floats had been carried out by aircraft such as Waterbird on Windermere which achieved a height of 300ft.

Despite this being an historic achievement, the flimsy wood, wire and canvas plane would never have been suitable for war.

Dr Kemp said: "It was not a good plane."

A replica of the original Waterbird has been built - with a more powerful engine - and it is hoped it will fly later this year.

Another pioneer - who took off safely but crashed on landing was Cmdr Oliver Schwann - later Swann.

He was the inspector of airships at Vickers in Barrow and bought his own A. V. Roe aircraft for £700.

He had floats attached to it before making his test flight from Barrow docks.

Dr Kemp said: "Winston Churchill became very interested in these hyroplanes and came up with the name of sea planes."

With the start of the war in August 1914 the Eastchurch base became the Royal Naval Air Service.

An old cruiser called HMS Hermes was converted into an aircraft carrier - followed later in 1914 by HMS Albatross.

Dr Kemp said: "She is regarded as the world's first purpose-built carrier."

The war saw the development of two ways to use aircraft at sea for reconnaissance or to launch primitive bombing raids.

One method was to lower a plane fitted with floats into the water while the other was to fit a short take-off strip on the deck or across gun turrets. Both methods required a crane to get the aircraft and crew out of the water following the flight!

The first organised air raid from the sea took place on Christmas Day in 1914 and was not a success - with just two of the seven aircraft which managed to get airborne returning safely.

Barrow-built submarine E11 - under the command of Victoria Cross winner Lt-Cmdr Martin Dunbar-Nasmith - rescue some of the air crew who were forced to ditch in the sea during the raid.

The Isle of Man Steam Packet ferry Ben-My-Chree - a regular sight in Barrow - was converted into a carrier.

It weighed 4,000 tons and could acchieve close to 25mph - making it able to keep pace with a fleet of warships.

It had three motor launches to recover planes after they landed in the sea.

Among the first to have trained at Eastchurch was Lt Charles Rumney Samson and the war saw him command a RNAS squadron in Belgium.

His men spent more time chasing acround in armoured cars than they did in the skies.

He turns up later as commander of the 18,000-ton HMS Campania - a liner converted to an aircraft carrier with six planes.

At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the German fleet was spotted from the air by a plane from HMS Engadene but it struggled to give reports of what it could see in the smoke and explosions as the big naval guns opened fire.

In 1917 HMS Manxman pilot Bernard Short won the Distinguished Service Order for bringing down the Zeppelin L23 - by dropping bombs on it by hand and almost blowing himself up in the process.

HMS Furious, a convreted battle-cruiser, saw the first attempts at landing planes on to a ship with the help of a catcher net.

The first modern-looking "flat-top" carrier - with no masts and funnels to get in the way of an airstrip was HMS Argus.

It went into service in September 1918 - too late to have an impact in the war.

Dr Kemp said: "That is the future."

By 1918 the Royal Naval Air Servive had expanded to a force of 55,000 men.