AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 27 / 146

Plate 27 of 146 · Between the wars · Coastal reconnaissance flying boat

Supermarine Southampton

Supermarine Southampton I, painted as N9899, the Supermarine Southampton I whose restored hull is displayed by the RAF Museum at Hendon: R.J. Mitchell’s twin-engined biplane flying boat of 1925, the RAF’s standard coastal reconnaissance boat of the late 1920s, with a 75 ft two-bay wing, two 470 hp Napier Lion broad-arrow engines mounted between the wings, a triple-finned biplane tail, wing-tip floats and a wooden hull with a flared chine, side-by-side open cockpits and staggered gun positions in the bow and amidships; one of the first six production boats and the only Southampton to survive, flown by No. 480 Flight at Calshot and the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Felixstowe, wrecked in a gale at Portland in 1928 and used for decades as a houseboat before its restoration; shown complete as it flew with No. 480 Flight: varnished mahogany topsides and deck over a cream planing bottom, a roundel and a white ‘N-9899’ on each side of the rear hull, blue, white and red rudder stripes, and silver-doped wings, tail, floats and struts with roundels above and below the wings and wooden two-bladed propellers.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as N9899, the Supermarine Southampton I whose restored hull is displayed by the RAF Museum at Hendon: R.J. Mitchell’s twin-engined biplane flying boat of 1925, the RAF’s standard coastal reconnaissance boat of the late 1920s, with a 75 ft two-bay wing, two 470 hp Napier Lion broad-arrow engines mounted between the wings, a triple-finned biplane tail, wing-tip floats and a wooden hull with a flared chine, side-by-side open cockpits and staggered gun positions in the bow and amidships; one of the first six production boats and the only Southampton to survive, flown by No. 480 Flight at Calshot and the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Felixstowe, wrecked in a gale at Portland in 1928 and used for decades as a houseboat before its restoration; shown complete as it flew with No. 480 Flight: varnished mahogany topsides and deck over a cream planing bottom, a roundel and a white ‘N-9899’ on each side of the rear hull, blue, white and red rudder stripes, and silver-doped wings, tail, floats and struts with roundels above and below the wings and wooden two-bladed propellers. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (956 KB)

Data plate

Specification

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

History

The Southampton I

The Southampton was R.J. Mitchell’s first great success, and it grew from the Supermarine Swan, an experimental amphibian of 1924. The Air Ministry was so pleased with the Swan that it ordered six production boats under specification R.18/24 straight from the drawing board, with no prototype. Mitchell drew a big, clean biplane of 75 ft span with two Napier Lion engines mounted between the wings, a triple-finned tail and a hull built of wood in the boatbuilders’ manner, with a sharp flared chine to throw the spray clear. The first, N9896, was flown by Henri Biard on 10 March 1925, and the type was in RAF service by the summer.

The first eighteen boats, the Mk I, had wooden hulls. They soaked up water and gained weight in service, so Supermarine went on to build the Mk II with a hull of duralumin, which was lighter and lasted far longer, and most of the Mk Is were later converted to the same standard. Southamptons equipped No. 480 Flight at Calshot and then Nos. 201, 203, 204, 205, 209 and 210 Squadrons at home and overseas, flying coastal patrols, fleet exercises and long training cruises around the British Isles. They carried three Lewis guns and up to 1,100 lb of bombs, and a few served on into the second half of the 1930s, when the Scapa and Stranraer replaced them.

The type is best remembered for the cruise of the Far East Flight. Four Mk IIs left Felixstowe in October 1927 and flew by way of the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and India to Singapore, then went on round Australia and back, covering some 27,000 miles by the end of 1928 without a serious mishap. The flight stayed at Singapore and became No. 205 Squadron. Southamptons were also sold to Argentina, Turkey and Japan, two ex-RAF boats went to Australia, and Imperial Airways borrowed one in 1929–30 to carry mail between Genoa and Alexandria.

This airframe

Supermarine Southampton I N9899

N9899The airframe modelled

N9899 was one of the first six wooden-hulled Southamptons, ordered in August 1924. It joined No. 480 (Coastal Reconnaissance) Flight at Calshot in July 1925, the first Southampton the flight received; that September an engine failed off Wicklow Head during a cruise round the British Isles and HMS Calliope towed it a hundred miles to Belfast Lough. From April 1927 it flew with the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Felixstowe, where it was used to train the crews of the Far East Flight, then returned to Calshot. On 23 November 1928 it broke from its moorings in a gale at Portland and was wrecked on the breakwater; only the engines were saved. The hull was sold, given a cabin roof and windows and used as a houseboat, latterly on the mud of the River Deben at Bawdsey Ferry near Felixstowe, until the RAF Museum bought it in 1967. It was restored at Cardington from 1984, with a new tail unit, and has been displayed at Hendon since 1995 without its wings and engines. The model completes it as it would have flown with No. 480 Flight: varnished mahogany topsides and deck over a cream planing bottom, a roundel and “N-9899” in white on each side of the rear hull, blue, white and red stripes on the three rudders, and silver-doped wings, tail, floats and struts with wooden propellers. The hull and its markings follow the museum’s restoration; the wings, engines and floats, which do not survive, are taken from the 1927 general arrangement drawing and photographs of other Southamptons, and the roundels under the lower wing are standard RAF practice of the time rather than seen in a photograph.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum London

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Southampton I in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 146 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.