Furious’ first senior aviation officer was Squadron Commander E H Dunning DSC RNAS, a brave, skilled and resourceful pilot who had recently been involved with carrier flying experiments at the Deck Landing Trials Unit at the RN Experimental Air Station Isle of Grain, near Sheerness in Kent.
With the full support of his commanding officer, Captain Wilmot Nicholson RN, he decided to investigate the possibility of landing on the large take-off deck. Both realised that if he succeeded and deck landing at sea proved to be a practical proposition, Furious’ aircraft could be flown repeatedly
rather than as ‘single shots’ that would be lost at the end of their sorties. This would enormously increase the potential value of the air group and a demonstration would stimulate progress.
The air group fighters were Sopwith Pups, a delightful aircraft to fly and a type that inspired confidence in its pilots. Landing speed depended on weight ,which reduced as fuel and ammunition were used up, but 40 knots was a good average. Given sufficient ship’s speed into a steady natural wind, the approach speed of a Pup relative to the deck could be very low. If Furious steamed at 20 knots into a 20-knot wind, a pilot could, in theory, side-slip over the deck from an approach alongside the ship and ‘hover’ over it, stationary relative to the deck. Initial tests were made while the ship lay at anchor close to the small naval air station at Smoogro, 7 miles southwest of Kirkwall on the north shore of Scapa Flow, where the Pups disembarked while she was in harbour. Whenever Furious lay head-to-wind Pup pilots would fly up the port side and, once forward of the bridge structure and derrick, carry out a flat or ‘S’ turn to starboard using rudder and then straighten up over the deck. Landing at, or near, stalling speed was dangerous, as a gust of wind or turbulence caused by the ship’s hull could cause the pilot to lose control, but several pilots are believed to have bounced their wheels on the deck before climbing away.
Attempting to land a Sopwith Pup in front of the superstructure of a large warship was all the more remarkable when the aircraft’s controls are fully explained. It had a very low wing loading, and any turbulence would cause the pilot to have to make constant adjustments to the primary flying controls. The 80hp Le Rhône 9C was a rotary engine, in which the cylinders rotated with the propeller about a fixed crankshaft. The rotating mass gave considerable torque and made left-hand turns easier to achieve than right; also the nose tended to rise when turning left and drop when turning right. The latter was never a good thing close to the surface of the sea, and the two effects made left- hand circuits the preferred option; they have remained so ever since. The engine operated over a very narrow range of revolutions, basically ‘on’ or off’, and its manipulation needed to be as much part of the pilot’s handling skill as the flying controls. The nearest equivalent to the control we now know as a throttle was a lever that adjusted the fuel/air mixture to achieve smooth running; with constant changes in height, speed, temperature and turning forces it needed constant adjustment. More instant control of engine power was achieved by means of a ‘blip’ switch on the control column, with which the pilot turned the engine ignition on and off. Speed was, therefore, achieved by a series of
‘power/no-power’ selections when necessary, giving the engine its characteristic ‘blipping’ sound.
Pup N6454 being hoisted out of Furious’ hangar by derrick, showing the narrow tolerances. Such a move would be extremely difficult in anything but the calm sea visible in this photograph. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
On 2 August 1917 Furious sailed for gun-direction exercises near an island south of Scapa Flow.
When these were complete Dunning was allowed to demonstrate the first deck landing by a naval pilot in an operational aircraft on an operational warship under way at sea. He flew a low, left-hand circuit off the ship’s port side, controlling his height with the elevators and speed with ignition switch while constantly adjusting the mixture control. Furious steamed at 26 knots into a steady 21-knot wind, giving a ‘wind over the deck’ of 47 knots from directly ahead. This was slightly higher than ideal, and meant that he had to ‘overtake’ the deck as he drew alongside, turning in close ahead of the port derrick and encountering ‘cliff-edge effect’ as the wind was blown upwards against the ship’s side. Once over the centre of the deck, Dunning would have centralised the controls and held the Pup, N6453, in a ‘three-point’ attitude about 10ft over the deck, ‘blipping’ the engine on and off to descend. He touched down at 1110 on the hangar roof at the widest part of the deck and was held firmly in place by officers briefed to prevent the Pup being blown over the side when it was lightened
as he got out. The importance of the event was widely recognised, and a number of GF senior officers watched the dawn of a new era from the bridge.
Dunning attempted to repeat the demonstration on 7 August, but on his first landing the aircraft was blown backwards by a gust as it landed and struck the hatch coaming, causing some damage to the elevator. He elected to make another attempt in a second aircraft, N6452, at 1330, and flew three approaches before making his last at 1400. By then the wind was gusty and he moved over the deck too high and well forward of the ideal position. As his wheels touched the deck the handling party started to grab the aircraft, but he waved them away and ‘blipped’ the engine on to fly away, but it choked and lost power. Photographs show the port wing lifting, probably due to ‘cliff-edge’ effect at the narrower part of the deck. Without power and semi-stalled, the Pup rolled off the deck to starboard and ditched. There was no crash-boat, and it took Furious twenty minutes to return to the aircraft, which was kept afloat by the air bag in the rear fuselage. Dunning was found to have drowned after being knocked unconscious when the aircraft hit the water. However, his initiative led to the recognition that landing aircraft on their carrier was indeed the best way forward, and that
‘one-shot’ operations represented a dead-end technology that was useful only as a short-term expedient. Dunning’s initiative showed what could be achieved and undoubtedly hastened the pace of progress. Every carrier landing by every pilot in the last 95 years owes something to him.