Shorts 184
CFS1 Shorts 184 The Shorts 184 was first flown in 1915 complete with a 14″ torpedo weighing some 900lbs. The aircraft was powered by a 225hp Sunbeam Mohawk engine although when it went into production there were various other engine used as well. These were apart from the Sunbeam Mohawk, were Sunbeam Maori mks I, II and III up to 260hp, Sunbeam Gurkha of 240hp and a Renault of 240hp (this engine was a copy of a captured Mercedes and was often referred to as the Renault-Mercedes). The last engine was well liked by the 184 pilots as it was slow revving and above all more reliable than the Sunbeams. Some aircraft were built with one engine and fitted with another later on in life so standardisation was something not bothered with. Even though the 184 was designed to be a torpedo bomber it rarely carried torpedoes, mainly because if you carried a torpedo you didn’t carry a gunner. There were examples of successful torpedo attacks but the usual offensive load was 4 X 65lb bombs or 4 X 100lb bombs. The 184 was used as a patrol and an anti-submarine attack aircraft and possibly did sink a U-boat, it definitely damaged many. The main problem being the speed of the 184, the pilot was very lucky if he could get 70mph out of his aircraft, this gave the U-boat Captain ample time to submerge and elude his stalker. The reliability of the engines also played a part in the non-successes as there were several pilots and gunners captured by the U-boat crews when the aircraft engine failed at a most important time. The aircraft flies well on my PC, even though it is very sluggish. Please enjoy this aircraft Les Stone 2011
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