Short Type 74

The Short Admiralty Type 74 was a single-engined tractor biplane seaplane with non-folding wings that served with the Royal Naval Air Service in the First World War. It carried over some of Horace Short's innovations from the Type 42, such as manganese-steel tube struts in place of wood, and had two rubber-sprung main floats, a tail float and small floats under the lower wingtips. Because it was meant for coastal patrol from shore stations, the wings did not fold. A 100 hp Gnome double Omega engine gave about five hours of flight. In 1913 the Royal Navy ordered seven from Shorts, and the first flew on 4 January 1914 with chief test pilot Gordon Bell and Richard Fairey aboard. The first delivered to the Isle of Grain took the Navy serial 74, which named the type. Four went to Dundee and three stayed at Grain, and the Dundee aircraft joined the 1914 Royal Fleet Review at Spithead.