User:TheLongTone/Short N.2A

The designation Short N.2A was used for a pair of experimental [floatplane]] scouting aircraft prototypes built by Short Brothers during 1916-17, designed to meet the needs of [Admitalty]] specification N.2A. Performance was unsatifactory and the Navy became more interested in aircraft capable of operation from aircraft carriers, and neither entered service.

Background
Admiralty specification N.2A called for two-seat scouting aircraft, since experience with existing scouting types such as the [[Sopwith Tabloid had revealed the need for for more equpment than could be realistically be carried and used in a single-seat design. Short Brothers came up with two proposals to meet this need, and a prototype of each was ordered by the Admiralty.

Experimental Scout Nos 1 and 2
The first aircraft, called the Experimental Scout No.1 was designed by Horace Short and built at Rochester and was based on the Short 310. It an unequal-span biplane. Unlike Short's other folding-wing aircraft, the wings were staggered, this necessitating a false spar in the upper wing to provide a vertical hinging axis for the wings. The desire for compactness  led to the production of an aicraft with a very short fuselage: the result proved to be nose heavy and incapable of taking off due to a lack of control moment, so the fuselage was lengthened by two feet (61 cm). So modifed,it was renamed Experiment Scout No2: it was flown briefly on 23 January, but performance was disappointing and the type was abandoned.

Experimental Scout No.3
The second aircraft was designed by Oswald Short in collaboration with the Admiralty Board of Inventions and Research and built at Eastchurch. It was a two-bay biplane using a low-drag B.I.R. 31 wing section with a greater gap beween the wings and elliptical wingtips. and a smaller tail fin. other departure from standard Short Brother practice was the use of a rigid trailing edge to the wing, in contast to the cord trailing edge which was generally used. It was first flown by John Parker on 9 March 1917 but proved underpowered: the Afridi was replaced by 260 hp Sunbeam Maori, but even with the increased power the military load was restricted to a  pair of6 lb bombs in adition to the lewis gun. Following the experiments on board HMS Furious the Admiralty lost interst in the use of scouting seaplanes, and no further development was carried out.