Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Two-seat biplane seaplane

Power Plant:

One 52 kw (70 hp) Renault eight-cylinder VEE engine

Specifications:

History:

A Farman Shorthorn was imported in 1914 by well known Sydney businessman, Lebbeus Hordern, a member of the Anthony Hordern & Sons empire which operated the large Anthony Hordern store in the city of Sydney, NSW. Lebbeus Hordern (31 May 1891 to 19 September 28) was granted an annuity at 21 years of age of £50,000 ($100,000), had a large yacht and did a lot of survey work around the Australian coast with the yacht. Some of his maps are known to have been used by Stanley Goble and Ivor Ewing McIntyre when they flew a Fairey IIID around Australia. At one stage in the 1930s Hordern had a speedboat fitted with two 119 kw (160 hp) Beardmore engines and operated it with the Saint George Speed Boat Club, one of these engines having been removed from his Short Shrimp. Hordern died at the age of 37.

Lebbeus Hordern was well known for his interest in aviation and, in particular, seaplanes. He imported a Felixstowe F.3 flying boat, two Curtiss Seagull flying boats G-AUCU (c/n MF419/29) and G-AUCV (c/n MF419/29), and a Short Shrimp G-AUPZ (c/n S.540), which was used by Captain Frank Hurley in Papua New Guinea when he filmed ‘Pearls and Savages’. He ordered a Short Cockle flying boat which, because of design problems, was not imported.

The Farman MF.11 was fitted with floats and became known as the Farman Hydroplane, a small number having been used by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). It arrived in Sydney and remained packed at Double Bay for a period until a pilot could be found. Its presence created quite a sensation at the time as it was the first seaplane in Australia. On 9 and 10 May 1914 Frenchman Ernest Francois Guillaux (24 January 1883 to 21 May 1917), known as Maurice Guillaux, made a number of test flights, taking Mr Hordern and Ms L Carbosse as passengers.

On 1 June 1914, Guillaux with Mr Hordern and a Mr Wood as passengers, whilst taxiing near Double Bay with the intention of skimming the water only, the aircraft reached take-off speed and rose to 12 m (40 ft), flew some distance and alighted without damage. Trials were conducted and interest was shown in its operation by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). On 3 June 1914 Guillaux made several flights over Sydney Harbour and took F D McMaster of Cassilis as a passenger. He then shared control of the machine with Mr Hordern as they flew over the harbour.

Great Britain, the United States, Belgium, Italy and Russia all operated Farman biplanes fitted with floats, being known as hydro-aeroplanes. In 1913 a Farman seaplane was used by a Greek crew to attack Turkish warships with grenades, and the type carried out reconnaissance during the Balkan War for the Greek Navy.

In 1914 Germany was considered a threat to Australian defences because German New Guinea was garrisoned by German officers with native troops. A combined Australian – New Zealand expeditionary force was formed and despatched to Papua New Guinea. To this end, on 27 November 1914, two aircraft from the Central Flying School at Point Cook, VIC were sent by rail to Sydney, NSW, these being an RAF BE.2a and a Farman seaplane. This machine had been presented to the Australian Government at the beginning of the war by Lebbeus Hordern and was later converted to landplane configuration, receiving the serial CFS-7 as part of the small fleet of the type used at Point Cook, for pilot training.

Special arrangements were made with the Victorian and New South Wales  Railway Departments for the rapid movement of the aircraft at the break of railway gauge at Albury, NSW, and, after travelling on a large bogie truck, they were loaded on board ‘HMAS Una’, an Australian Navy sloop, after reaching Sydney on 28 November. The two aircraft were to be flown by Lieutenants Harrison and Merz, with four mechanics, some spares being sent with the aircraft. It would seem the Farman suffered some damage on the trip and 22.8 m (75 ft) of silk was purchased in Sydney “to repair the hydroplane”.

On arrival in Papua New Guinea the small German force present offered very little resistance, although the expeditionary force visited both Wilhelmshafen and Petershafen. Colonel Pethebridge, the senior officer, telegraphed the Australian command from Wilhelmshafen (which later became Madang) on 20 December that the aircraft were not required and the unit should return to Melbourne, VIC in 1915.

These were the first two aircraft despatched overseas by the Commonwealth of Australia for war service, despite the fact that neither aircraft was assembled in Papua New Guinea, remaining in their transport boxes. It is interesting to note that the mechanics had received instructions to construct floats for the RAF BE.2a so it could also be used as a seaplane if required but whether the floats were completed is not known.

The subsequent history of the Shorthorn aircraft has been a bit vague. It seems that five Farman Shorthorns were imported for the air force but six serial numbers were allotted. There were newspaper statements which indicated a Bristol Boxkite was built as a hydroplane at Point Cook which would be fitted with a Renault engine and this may have had something to do with the ‘sixth’ Shorthorn. In any event, the Farman was rebuilt by mechanics at Point Cook as a landplane, and on 20 July 1916 it was fitted with an Australian licence-built Renault engine which had been constructed by Tarrant Motors in Melbourne. It was later only used as a reserve for the Bristol Boxkites. On 30 June 1917 it was retired to be used as an Instructional Airframe.

The Farman MF.11 Hydroplane was of wood and fabric construction with wire bracing. Engine usually fitted was either the 52 kw (70 hp) or 75 kw (100 hp) Renault. Photographs which have survivee of the Farman Hydroplane aircraft are interesting in that the fuselage pod, when it was at Point Cook, was significantly longer and of different shape to when it was flown from Double Bay on Sydney Harbour and this would indicate that at some stage the pod was rebuilt when it was fitted with the Australian-built Renault engine.

The Australian War Memorial (AWM) recorded that the Royal Navy aircraft carrier ‘HMS Ark Royal’, the first purpose-built aircraft carrier, carried six seaplanes during its period at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey. These aircraft, Farman Hydroplanes, were used by the ANZACs for aerial surveillance of the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915, operations including 38 aerial reconnaissance and 18 photographic missions. Pilots included members of the Australian Flying Corps (AFC), including Captain Thomas H Piper and Intelligence Officer Major Charles Villiers-Stuart. The latter is known to have flown in a Hydroplane on 14 April 1914 (his first ever flight). He described the flight as the aircraft having a top speed of 95 km/h (59 mph) and was “one of the crudest and earliest seaplanes ever built, fragile and temperamental as it had a habit of cutting out mid-flight”.