F-5 flying boat
During 1917 the British Admiralty redesigned the H-16 again to produce a boat capable of carrying more depth bombs and possessing greater endurance. A sample machine was successfully developed in the spring of 1918 and the plans thereof were furnished the Navy Department. This machine was designated the model F-5 flying boat. The F-5 had an allowable full load of 1,300 pounds and could carry four depth bombs against two for the H-16, besides having a cruising endurance of 11 hours against 9 for the H-16.
The F-5 is very similar to the H-16, being approximately 10 per cent larger than the H-16, In addition to this increase in dimensions, which was made to afford a greater military load, it will be noted that this seaplane has balanced wing-tip ailerons and also a balanced rudder. The hull form is practically identical with that of the H-16.
The advantages of this flying boat over the H-16 were obvious and hence, as the H-16 contracts were completed, it was decided to replace them by orders for F-5 flying boats with the same manufacturers. Before this could be done, however, it was necessary to redesign the British F-5 at the Naval Aircraft Factory in order to adapt it for quantity production on the assembly system, and in order to use Liberty engines instead of the British Rolls-Royce engines. This redesigned model was designated the F-5-L.
Production of airplanes in appreciable quantities was first reached in April, 1918, at which time the twin-engine boats were being received from the various manufacturers at the rate of three per week. By the summer of 1918 aircraft production was well underway and had reached its height about September 1, when twin-engine flying boats were being delivered at the rate of 13 per week.
By mid-Summer 1918, the factory was building the F-5-L flying boat based on an experimental British type. Compared to the H-16 it had greater endurance and was capable of carrying a heavier bomb load. Also, it was larger: its 103-foot, 9-inch wingspan was attached to a 49-foot, 4-inch hull. The F-5-L had a gross loaded weight of 13,000 pounds and a maximum speed of 89 miles per hour. Its two Liberty motors developed 360 hp each.
The British Admiralty, at the request of Admiral W. S. Sims, USN, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe, furnished the Navy Department with the drawings of the F-5. On March 15, 1918, Mr. Ward, a Royal Navy Flying Corps warrant officer, arrived from Felixstowe with the plans for the F-5 boat, of which one experimental model had been built in England. But these drawings were entirely impossible for quantity manufacture. They required hand cutting and fitting by experienced workers using materials not available in quantity.
The labor of converting H-16 plans to standard plans was slight compared with the labor involved in the complete redesign of the F-5, preserving external dimensions, of course. All metal parts had to be redesigned for machine fabrication by American methods. Since the hull in particular was considered weak by Commanders H. C. Richardson and J. C. Hunsaker, Commander Richardson completely redesigned it on a longitudinal framing system, preserving the outer lines only. The engine installation, designed for Rolls-Royce engines in the British boat, had to be redesigned to take Liberty motors.
Thus the American F-5-L, resembling its British prototype only in essentials, was created. The Philadelphia Ledger of October 5, 1918, described the F-5-L, a model of which was on display at the City Hall Plaza, in terms of its lethal capacity as follows: "Directly under each of the two lower wings are two deathdealing depth bombs. These are controlled by a pilot, who, on discovery of a U-boat, can discharge any one of the bombs. Adorning the port cockpit in a ring mount is a Lewis machine gun. Another is at the rear of the plane, while two others are at either side."
In June 1918, production had reached the point of one aircraft a day. On July 7, the last of the original order of 50 H-16 flying boats was completed. The average cost of the last 20, including overhead, was less than half the average of the cost of the first ten. The total output of the Naval Aircraft Factory to December 31, 1918, included 183 twin-engine patrol flying boats, with 50 sets of spare parts. Of the 183, the last 33 were F-5-L's.
To appreciate fully the magnitude of the job accomplished, one must remember that the Navy was only six years away from its purchase of its first aircraft, the A-1, and all the main advances in manufacture in quantity were still in the future.
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