The History of Aviation in the Solent Area

In 1908 Samuel Cody ascended in his biplane at Farnborough and staggered into the air to fly for just a few moments, making the first flight of a powered aircraft in Great Britain. This event triggered an explosion of activity and interest in aviation. Just a few short years later in 1911 Mr E. Moon built a light monoplane that he flew from a field near Eastleigh thus bringing aviation further south to Southampton.

Although there were a number of flying exploits around the area by brave aviators it was not until 1913 that serious aircraft production was brought to Southampton. In that year an eccentric millionaire Pemberton-Billing joined forces with a young engineer named Hubert Scott-Paine who between them created an aviation company based on a disused coal wharf in Woolston, on the banks of the River Itchen at Southampton. The Company set out to build 'boats that flew', these were small motor boats with wings that were detachable so the craft could take off and land in estuaries and coastal waters, then remove the wings and continue as a conventional craft.

In searching for a name for the Company they were inspired by the submarine which by then had become a firmly established fighting machine and operated under the sea, so they called their company Supermarine. The first order for 'boats that fly' was for the Germans but by the time the machines were off the drawing board the First World War had broken out and the contract was never completed and certainly never paid for.

The company continued to manufacture aircraft throughout the First World War, some of which were designed by Pemberton-Billing and others to designs of the Air Department of the Admiralty. One interesting aircraft produced was the Night Hawk anti-Zeppelin quadraplane, an aircraft with four wings designed to creep up behind Zeppelins and with the use of a large search light and machine gun to shoot them down.

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