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Monday 29 January 2018

The Beardmore Aviation Ship

One early seaplane and aircraft carrier that is mentioned in passing in WORLD WAR I SEAPLANE AND AIRCRAFT CARRIERS is the Beardmore Aviation Ship. It was designed in 1912 but never built ... but if it had been, it might well have played an important part in the development of naval aviation.


The design would have proved impractical (the twin superstructures would have created dangerous vortices, particularly over the rear deck), but the concept of a ship with full-length flying-off and landing-on deck was ahead of its time.

William Beardmore and Company was a Scottish engineering and shipbuilding company that was based in Glasgow and Clydeside area. It was founded in 1886, and at one point employed about 40,000 people. Amongst its products were:
  • Forged steel castings, armour plate, and naval guns
  • Merchant ships and warships
  • Steam railway locomotives
  • Aircraft (both fixed-wing and airships)
  • Road vehicles (including engines, lorries, taxis, motor cars, and motorcycles)
The company went into decline in the 1930s, and was gradually broken up and its constituent parts either sold off or absorbed into other companies.

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