Rare newsreels from the British Pathe collection with 45 minutes of early attempts in producing flying boats in the Solent area.

Factories in Southampton, Cowes and Hamble were all instrumental in developing the newly formed flying machine into a waterborne amphibian. Film of the first launching at Fairey Aviation at Hamble Point in the 1920s and many developments as the decades progressed to the first jet-powered fighter flying boat, the SRA1 and Princess Flying Boat of the early 1950s. We see many scenes of the Schneider Trophy attempts in the Solent at which Britain was leader for many years, retaining the trophy for keeps.

We end with scenes of the flying school at Hamble where pilots were trained for commercial services and the other Solent invention – the hovercraft which was designed by Sir Chistopher Cockerell on the banks of Southampton Water.

Produced by - Kingfisher Productions
Running time -  45 minutes
DVD only
Released - November 2022