all over Europe it joined the Royal Naval Air
Service (RNAS) as No.882, travelled to Grain
in Kent for assessment and later received
bomb mountings. It was written off during
June 1915 after a sideslip while landing.
The second aircraft to appear was a larger,
more complex twin-pusher with 90hp Austin-
built Curtiss OX engines, although side-by-
side dual control was retained. It received
racing Number 9, its competition pilot named
as Lt A Loftus Bryan, who worked for Norman
Thompson. Again, hull construction was
subcontracted, to Williams of Littlehampton,
a new White and Thompson subsidiary. The
company referred to the aircraft as the ‘No.1
Flying Boat’. Serialled No.883, it made one
test flight for the RNAS but wasn’t delivered;
instead it remained at Middleton, waiting for
modifications it never received.
However, the Admiralty became interestedin the single-engined type, ordering six
developed examples and later a further two,
known as the White and Thompson No.3
Flying Boat. Although they were similar to
No.882, improvements were made. Mostly
the 120hp Beardmore was used, but one
example featured a 150hp Hispano-Suiza.
The single fin above No.882’s upper centre
section was changed to two smaller fins, either
above the inboard or outboard interplane
struts (individual aircraft varied). The square
wing tips were rounded off and the tail fin
area enlarged. Generally, the engine bearers
received supporting struts down to the nose
area. No main undercarriage was fitted,
instead a beaching skid ran beneath the
empennage. On land, a simple single-axle
chassis was used to move the aircraft.
The first No.3 Flying Boat, serialled
1195, was delivered to 1 Squadron RNAS at
Dover on February 7, 1915, by when it had
received a Lewis gun mounted on the port
side of its cockpit. Later that month it was
damaged and in March returned to Bognor
for repairs. Back at Dover it suffered several
engine failures and consequent damage,but travelled to Calshot Flying School during
October 1915. It wasn’t deleted from the
RNAS strength until July 1918, but almost
certainly ceased to exist well before then.
The subsequent No.3 ’Boats had varied
careers. Number 1196, delivered to Fort
George, near Inverness during February
1915, later served in the Dundee area,
while 1197 joined 1 Squadron, subsequently
visiting Dunkirk, Dover and Bembridge and
1198 flew from Dover and later Calshot. After
1199 went to France with 1 Squadron it was
hit by anti-aircraft fire and force-landed in
Westerschelde, Vlissingen, being interned
and later operated by the Dutch Navy as
G1. After a short career at Fort George,
1200 crashed during May 1915. The two
later aircraft, 3807 and 3808, both flew from
Calshot as trainers; 3807 also sported the
Lewis gun addition. Several No.3s wererefitted with improved hulls.
During the autumn of 1914, Percy Hyde
Beadle joined the company as chief designer;
his first project was a landplane. The aircraft
became known as the ‘Bognor Bloater’, a
name combining its place of origin with the
appearance of its scaly skinned fuselage.
The first example, 1171, was first flown by
Eric Gordon England on March 8, 1915.
The tandem two-seat ‘Bloater’ fuselages
were built by Williams and employed S E
Saunders’ patented Consuta covering –
laminated planking secured with copper
stitching. Simple two-bay unequal span wings
with four ailerons were adopted, together
with a sharply pointed fin and rudder. The
undercarriage included two skids to prevent a
nose-over, and the ‘Bloater’ was powered by a
70hp Renault-Wolseley engine. Although an
order was placed and the serial range 1171-1182
allocated, only nine ‘Bloaters’ were completed,
the final three left as a spares source.
Following test flights 1171 passed to
2 Squadron; 1172, 1173 and 1175 arrivedover the early summer of 1915, all serving
with Eastbourne Flying School. Following
tests and modifications 1174 was declared
unfit for service. Neither 1176 and 1177 flew
operationally, and 1178 and 1179 failed their
acceptance tests. Eventually the ‘Bloater’
was abandoned as more successful projects
came along.‘SMALL AMERICA’
On October 4, 1915 the business changed
its name to the Norman Thompson Flight
Company; Hyde Beadle remained chief
designer. The restructured firm’s first aircraft
was the N.T.4, a twin-engined flying boat
the broad ancestry of which lay in the twin-
engined ‘Circuit of Britain’ racer. The Admiralty
had become interested in larger flying boats,
stemming from its purchases of twin-engined
Curtiss types. Norman Thompson’s newdesign initially became known as an ‘America’,
the same title as bestowed on the Curtiss
flying boats, but following the entry into
service of the larger Curtiss H.12, it was
rechristened the ‘Small America’, which was a
confusing situation.
In fact, the N.T.4 was fundamentally
different to the American ’boats, being a
pusher with four-bay wings and a quite different
hull layout. Its wings were of unequal span
with broad-chord ailerons, and mounted two
uncowled 150hp Hispano-Suiza engines. The
hull was a boat-built structure incorporating
a single step and an enclosed side-by-side
cabin, though at first the amount of cockpit
glazing was limited. As with previous designs,
a very long fin was adopted.
During December 1915, a contract
was placed for six N.T.4s. The first, 8338,
was tested at Bognor in October 1916 and
eventually delivered to Calshot during April- The following five, 8339-8343, were
built at Killingholme, Lincolnshire, between
January and March 1917, fitted for carriage
of two 230lb (104kg) bombs for anti-U-
boat operations. Number 8338 was tested
80 Aviation News incorporating Jets September 2017No.3 Flying Boats under construction at Norman
Thompson’s Middleton premises in late 1914.78-82_thompsonDC.mf.indd 80 03/08/2017 19:09