Not a one-off, a few aircraft of the type were built specifically for an aircraft competition.
Not a one-off, a few aircraft of the type were built specifically for an aircraft competition.
It is the Praga BH.111.
Next clue would have been that the Breda Ba.33 mentioned by Mike was an opponent in that competition.
Over go you, Uli.
Ah, the ASL Viking - which I got to via the 1915 Mann & Grimmer M.1.
It is the ASL Viking
I was surprised to see that the name "Viking" is so widely used in aviation.
_
gX
The experimental product of an early aeroplane manufacturing company.
Apparently this is the only known photograph of this aeroplane. It dates from 1916 and was the subject of a British government order. Thus it was allocated a RAF serial number. Whether it flew with that seems doubtful. Some say it never flew. Some say it was never built. But unless the photograph above is not of this aeroplane but of something else equally odd, the latter assertion seems improbable. What seems not to be in dispute is that it was unsuccessful and very poorly recorded.
Last clue. This photograph almost certainly was taken at Hendon. The aeroplane was the product of one of the most famous names there at the time.
I hope this is not getting too one-sided but could this be the Airco DH.7?
Couldn't find a picture of it.
Sorry, Robert, but it's not an Airco product. This aeroplane's manufacturer was active at Hendon from 1911 to 1920.
Time to draw this mystery to a conclusion. It is the 1916 Grahame-White Twin Airscrew Experimental A8964. It has also been given the designation Grahame-White M.1 but there is no evidence of that being contemporary. Very little is known about it. Some sources say that it had a pair of contra-rotating propellers (that suggestion does not rest easily with what can be seen in the photograph). Others say that it had two four bladed airscrews, bolted ‘front to back’, which both rotated in the same direction. No-one seems to know what powered it although there are some suggestions that, if the propellers were contra-rotating, there were two engines within the cowlings. As mentioned already, whilst a government contract for it was placed, it was not delivered to the RFC (sorry for the earlier inappropriate reference to the RAF). What became of it does not seem to be recorded, leaving this oddball as a footnote in aviation history. Open house, please.
P.s. the sole photograph of it is to be found on p.41 of ‘Hendon Aerodrome – A History’ (David Oliver, Airlife, 1994).
This company was one and done after building this biplane. The post war training boom did not help them out.
This one showed up in 1916 and the company was still around (on paper) by 1919 but went quiet after that.
Dang, but I thought I could find it. However, time is limited as we're packing to head for the sun.
"To some the sky is the limit. To others it is home" anon.
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” -Albert Einstein
Yes, and I am not wasting time trawling through the whole of Aerofiles (assuming it's in there). The loss of the search function has rendered it pretty useless !
We all have to trawl somewhere, whether it's Aviafrance, or through several books or elsewhere. (Ducking for cover).
This is the non-designated "General" from the General Aeronautic Co. of New York. There are a couple more photos on Aerofiles.
Open board!
Truss is the magic word
I think this is the Vought Bat Boat.
The Lewis & Vought VE-10 "Bat Boat" it is
Over to the north west
_
gX
Thanks, Uli.
On with a sporty monoplane.
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