Seadrome Hull

In the first couple of decades of the 20th Century there were tremendous advances in flying. 

This was no better illustrated by the differences between the aircraft developed by the Wright Brothers in 1903 to the types of war machines just 11 years plus further on in the 1914 to 1918  conflict. 

The inter war years saw an upsurge in re-purposing of aeroplanes into the commercial sector for the carrying of paying passengers and freight goods. The route that was seen to be the most lucrative was the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Northern Europe. 

This was challenging given that long distance flights required frequent fuel stops making it necessary for a slower and indirect route to be adopted. 

As early as 1919 a new word entered the vocabulary related to flight- Seadrome. 

It will have sounded quite futuristic at the time, very much in the same sense as Space Port does today, but was intended to be nothing more than a floating platform acting as a landing stage, refuelling and relay/wireless station. 

However, in the context of the Atlantic Ocean a Seadrome about mid way between the two continents would open up the whole operation for flights with lower risk and more frequency. Various feasibility studies were carried out by engineers and inventors and the first three decades saw a rush to register Patents for what were not wholly dissimilar structures. A Canadian design was for a platform 1200 feet long and 500 feet wide at a height of 100 feet above sea level and a prolific Irish Engineer, F G Creed advocated a structure that would be able to stay level and steady in even the heaviest Atlantic swells. 

The scale of the floating Seadromes was meant to accommodate conventional take offs and landings but gradually the term became associated with Flying Boats. In the second world war there were proposals to develop Seadromes at regular intervals around the British Coast for strategic purposes. 

In 1950 it was the possibility of a flying boat service linking Kingston Upon Hull to the likes of Scotland, Ireland, Southampton and Falmouth that received an enthusiastic response from Civic and Business Leaders in the Yorkshire Port City. 

For a place of its size and strategic importance as a Gateway to Europe the lack of an airport within the City catchment was seen as a major disadvantage. There had been an airfield at Hedon which had been well patronised and with links to the Pioneering Amy Johnson in the inter war era and it would not be until 1974 that Humberside Airport was developed on the former RAF base at Kirmington on the South Bank. 

There had been lobbying from the Hull Chamber of Commerce for an airport for many years and the idea of a Seadrome to serve a flying boat service was well supported. 

The sponsors of the idea were South Cornwall and Falmouth Airways Limited who proposed the use of Hythe aircraft which could carry up to 50 Passengers. The Hythe was a civilian version of the very versatile and battle proven Short Sunderland and well up to the task of coastal and cross country flights in the British Isles. 

A Hythe Flying Boat about 1950

The same company behind the tentative Hull Seadrome had already established a route from Leith, Edinburgh to the South Coast but a combination of high fare prices and low actual patronage had seen the initially promising service founder. 

No actual material details were formulated to progress the idea of a flying boat Seadrome in Hull even after the excitement and speculation about its benefits for the City and its regional commercial status.