Bristol-Burney seaplanes

Bristol-Burney seaplanes
Role	Experimental aircraft
National origin	United Kingdom
Manufacturer	Bristol and Colonial Aeroplane Company
Designer	Frank Barnwell

The Bristol-Burney seaplanes were a pair of experimental seaplanes produced by a collaboration between Lt. Dennistoun Burney and the Bristol and Colonial Aeroplane Company during 1912-14. The aircraft, neither of which was successfully flown, featured a novel hydroplane undercarriage. Although not a success, their development was the basis of Burney's later invention of the paravane.

Dennistoun Burney was a naval officer who had become convinced of the possibilities of naval aviation and who had a number of technical ideas on the subject. Wanting to develop these but lacking the technical resources to do so, he approached Bristol who expressed an interest and, having been assured of support from the Admiralty, set up a highly secret separate design office, called the X Department, to develop these at the end of 1911. Frank Barnwell was hired to act as designer, with Clifford Tinson as his assistant. Their first proposal, designated X.1 was an adaptation of a Bristol G.E. 1 biplane. The aircraft was to be supported in the water by five streamlined airbags under the wings but for takeoff used the hydrofoil principle recently pioneered by Enrico Forlanini using three sets of hydrofoils, each consisting of a central leg bearing a stack of lifting planes, an assembly referred to as a "hydroped". In addition to the air propeller the aircraft was to be driven by water propellers for use at take-off, driven via a clutch so they could be disengaged when the aircraft was in flight.

This proposal was soon discarded, and Barnwell produced a proposal for a two-seat monoplane with an inflatable wing, using eight tubes of rubberised fabric running spanwise in place of spars. Some experiments were made with this idea, but it proved too heavy to be practical, so the design was modified to use a conventional wing structure with three spars using wing-warping for lateral control mounted on top of the fuselage, which had a rounded boat-like lower section and was planked with mahogany and then covered with varnished sailcloth. This was to function like a flying boat's hull, keeping the aircraft afloat until it was moving fast enough for the hydrofoils to begin providing lift. Two hydropeds angled out from below the leading edge of the wing, each with a water propeller driven by a shaft contained within the leg, and a third hydroped supported the rear fuselage. It was powered by a 80 hp (60 kW) Canton-Unné water-cooled radial engine, driving both air and water propellers via a pair of Hele-Shaw clutches. Dual controls were fitted in the cockpit, in which the crew sat side by side.

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