The AD Flying Boat was designed by the British Admiralty's Air Department to serve as a patrol aircraft that could operate in conjunction with Royal Navy warships. Intended for use during World War I, production of the aircraft was terminated as the end of the war came into sight, and the type saw little operational use.
Designed by Lt Linton Hope, the aircraft was of conventional biplaneflying_boat configuration, and also featured a biplane tail with twin rudders. The pilot and observer sat in tandem in the nose, with the engine and pusher propeller mounted behind them, between the wings. The wings could be folded forwards to facilitate shipboard stowage.
Two prototypes were constructed in 1915 by Pemberton-Billing Ltd (later to become Supermarine Aviation), and these were followed by twenty-seven production machines out of an original order for eighty-five.
Following the Armistice, Supermarine purchased nineteen of these aircraft back to remanufacture for the civil market as the Supermarine Channel.
Flyingboats were among the largest aircraft of the first half of the 20th century.
The largest flyingboat of the war was the Blohm und Voss Bv 238 which was also the heaviest plane to fly during the Second World War.
That short 1947 hop of the 'Flying Lumberyard' was to be its last however, a victim of post-war cutbacks and the disappearance of its intended mission as a transatlantic transport.
As it is presumed that the boats belonging to Group "Falke" and "Habicht" are W. of the expected convoys, both groups proceeded on an easterly course with a speed of 6 knots at 1300.
According to boats estimate this was connected with a HX convoy.
Instead the boats U 614 and 456 coming from the east and in approximately AE 70 were assigned for this task.
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