AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 06 / 132

Plate 06 of 132 · Great War · Torpedo and reconnaissance seaplane

Short 184

Short 184, painted as 8359, the Westland-built Short 184 flown from HMS Engadine by Flight Lieutenant Frederick Rutland and Assistant Paymaster G. S. Trewin at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916: the Royal Naval Air Service two-seat torpedo and reconnaissance seaplane with a 240 hp Sunbeam Gurkha V-12 under grey metal cowling, a tall box radiator and twin exhaust chimneys ahead of the upper wing, three-bay folding wings with ailerons on both planes, two main floats, a tail float and wing-tip floats; shown complete as it flew at Jutland, since only its forward fuselage survives at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton: clear-doped linen wings, tail and rear fuselage, grey-painted forward panels, varnished spruce struts, roundels on the upper wing, lower wing undersides and fuselage sides, blue, white and red rudder stripes and the serial ‘8359’ on the rear fuselage; the rudder stripes and the serial’s exact position follow other 184s of 1916, as no photograph of 8359 shows them.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 8359, the Westland-built Short 184 flown from HMS Engadine by Flight Lieutenant Frederick Rutland and Assistant Paymaster G. S. Trewin at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916: the Royal Naval Air Service two-seat torpedo and reconnaissance seaplane with a 240 hp Sunbeam Gurkha V-12 under grey metal cowling, a tall box radiator and twin exhaust chimneys ahead of the upper wing, three-bay folding wings with ailerons on both planes, two main floats, a tail float and wing-tip floats; shown complete as it flew at Jutland, since only its forward fuselage survives at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton: clear-doped linen wings, tail and rear fuselage, grey-painted forward panels, varnished spruce struts, roundels on the upper wing, lower wing undersides and fuselage sides, blue, white and red rudder stripes and the serial ‘8359’ on the rear fuselage; the rudder stripes and the serial’s exact position follow other 184s of 1916, as no photograph of 8359 shows them. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (920 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (fuselage); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Short 184 modelled here.

History

The Short 184

In September 1914 Commodore Murray Sueter, head of the Admiralty’s air department, asked for a seaplane big enough to carry a torpedo on a 225 hp Sunbeam engine. Horace Short took on the job, and the two prototypes were given the Admiralty serials 184 and 185; the first gave the type its name. It was a large three-bay biplane with wings that folded back for stowage aboard ship, two main floats, a tail float and small floats under the wingtips.

On 12 August 1915 Flight Commander Charles Edmonds, flying a 184 from the seaplane carrier HMS Ben-my-Chree in the Dardanelles, became the first pilot to attack a ship with an air-launched torpedo. In practice the 184 could barely lift a torpedo in warm weather, and most of its war was spent on patrol, anti-submarine work and light bombing from seaplane carriers and coastal stations around Britain, in the Mediterranean and in the Aegean.

Ten British firms built 936 of them, with Sunbeam, Renault and other engines of 225 to 260 hp. The type stayed in service with the RAF until the early 1920s and flew for several foreign navies, the last in Estonia and Chile until 1933.

This airframe

Short 184 8359

8359The airframe modelled

8359 was one of twelve 184s built by Westland at Yeovil, the first aircraft the company made. On 31 May 1916 it was hoisted out from HMS Engadine at the Battle of Jutland, and Flight Lieutenant Frederick Rutland and his observer, Assistant Paymaster G. S. Trewin, flew low under the cloud to find and report German cruisers, the only British aircraft in the battle. Rutland was known ever after as “Rutland of Jutland”. The seaplane was given to the Imperial War Museum in 1917 and was damaged by bombing in the Blitz; its unrestored forward fuselage, with its Sunbeam Gurkha (the only one left), radiator and cockpits, is on loan to the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton. The model shows the complete aircraft as it flew at Jutland, in clear-doped linen with grey metal panels round the engine; the rudder stripes and the position of the serial follow other 184s of 1916, as no photograph of 8359 shows them.

See it at Fleet Air Arm Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Short 184 in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 132 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.