Franco-British Aviation
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 1913 |
| Founder | Louis Schreck, André Beaumont |
| Defunct | 1934 |
| Headquarters | London , United Kingdom |
Area served | France, United Kingdom, Russia, Italy |
Key people | Louis Schreck (technical director), Émile Paumier (technical director) |
| Products | Seaplanes, flying boats |
Franco-British Aviation (FBA) was an aircraft manufacturer in the early 1900s, with its main office based in London and manufacturing facilities situated near Paris. Established in 1913 by Louis Schreck and André Beaumont, the company concentrated on producing seaplanes.
History
FBA was created in 1913 by Louis Schreck and André Beaumont, with Schreck overseeing the technical operations at its French branch located in Argenteuil. The company's first design was a flying boat hull inspired by the Donnet-Leveque Type A, which later developed into the FBA Type A biplane featuring a single pusher engine positioned between the wings.
Building upon this initial design, FBA delivered a range of flying boats to the Triple Entente nations—France, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Empire—during World War I. The firm manufactured substantial numbers of compact flying boats for the naval forces of France, Russia, Italy, and Britain.
Following the war, the company restructured as Hydravions Louis Schreck FBA and continued producing related aircraft models, including the commercially popular FBA 17. In 1922, under technical director Émile Paumier, the designs progressed from the Type 10 series, transitioning from pusher to tractor propeller configurations beginning with the Type 19.
Despite these innovations, FBA was unable to regain its wartime prominence. A reduction in orders, particularly from civilian markets, caused production to cease by 1931. By 1934, facing financial difficulties, its manufacturing facilities were sold to Société des Avions Bernard, which itself went bankrupt in 1935.
Aircraft
| Name | Type | Production | Notes | First flight | Operators | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Nobreak | Single-engine biplane seaplane for reconnaissance | Also known as FBA-Leveque | 1913 | Austria-Hungary, Brazil, Denmark, France, Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom, Russia | ||||||||
| FBA Type B | Single-engine biplane seaplane | 150 | 1915 | France, United Kingdom | ||||||||
| Template:Nobreak | Single-engine biplane seaplane | Over 78 | 1916 | |||||||||
| FBA Type H | Single-engine biplane seaplane | 1915 | ||||||||||
| FBA Type S | Single-engine biplane seaplane | 1917 | ||||||||||
| FBA 10 | Single-engine biplane seaplane | 2 | 1922 | |||||||||
| FBA 11 | Single-engine biplane training seaplane | 1 | Training variant of Type C | 1923 | ||||||||
| FBA 13 | Single-engine biplane training seaplane | 1 | 1922 | |||||||||
| FBA 14 | Single-engine biplane seaplane | 20 | Developed from Type 11 trainer model | France | ||||||||
| FBA 16 | Single-engine biplane seaplane | 1 | ||||||||||
| FBA 17 | Two-seat single-engine biplane training seaplane | 348 | Manufactured under license in the USA as Viking | 1923 | Brazil, France, Poland, United States | |||||||
| FBA 19 | Amphibious two-seat single-engine reconnaissance biplane | 9 | Prototype version named 19 HMT3 with three seats produced | 1924 | ||||||||
| FBA 21 | Civil transport amphibious single-engine biplane | 7 | Civil adaptation of Type 19 accommodating four passengers | 1925 | ||||||||
| FBA 171 | Catapult-launched variant of Type 17 | 1 | ||||||||||
| FBA 172 | Catapult-equipped version of Type 17 | 7 | 1932 | |||||||||
| FBA 270 | Two-seat single-engine biplane seaplane | 1 | 1929 | France | ||||||||
| Amphibious two-seat single-engine biplane | 2 | 1930 | ||||||||||
| Prototype four-seat amphibious single-engine biplane | 1 | 1931 | ||||||||||
| Variant prototype of type 290 amphibious model | 1 | |||||||||||
| Four-seat amphibious liaison variant of type 291 | 6 |
France |- FBA 294 |
Four-seat amphibious liaison model variant of type 293 | 2 |
France |- FBA 310 |
Amphibious touring monoplane | 9 | 1930 |