Vickers Hydravion

The Vickers Hydravion (No.14) was a British seaplane built by Vickers in the early 1910s.

The Hydravion was a large seaplane of biplane configuration, which relied on the design philosophy of Henri Farman by utilizing a pusher engine and the tail being supported on outrigger booms. Only one seaplane version was built, and it crashed at Dartford during early tests.^[1][2]

A later version of the Hydravion, the Vickers No. 14B, would have had two 100 hp (75 kW) Gnome 9 Delta engines in tandem configuration buried in the fuselage, driving tractor propellers as well as a nose-mounted 37 mm (1.457 in) semi-automatic cannon.

Data from British Aircraft 1809-1914^[3]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Capacity: 3 passengers
• Length: 43 ft (13 m)
• Wingspan: 72 ft 8 in (22.15 m)
• Height: 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m)
• Wing area: 819 sq ft (76.1 m²)
• Gross weight: 2,400 lb (1,089 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Gnome 9 Delta 9-cylinder air-cooled rotary piston engines, 100 hp (75 kW)
• Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch pusher propeller

Performance

• Maximum speed: 51.5 mph (82.9 km/h, 44.8 kn)
• Stall speed: 32 mph (51 km/h, 28 kn)