Aviation Heritage Awards for Waterbird

The Lakes Flying Company has won Aviation Heritage UK’s Robert Pleming Memorial Award for 2022 for its recreation and successful flying of Waterbird, a faithful replica of the first seaplane to fly with a stepped float, built for Edward Wakefield by Avro, and flown from Windermere in 1911. No construction drawings survived for Waterbird, so the replica, including its game-changing stepped float, which reduced water drag during take-off and has been used on all subsequent water-borne aircraft, had to be built using only a few period photographs as a guide.

It took 11 years to build using period materials like bamboo were used to build the replica, while a modern engine was the only significant departure from the original. Waterborne flights were made in the summer of 2022.