Sippe at the controls of the Avro Type D seaplane at Cavendish Dock, Barrow-in-Furness, in April 1912. The series of flights Sippe made from the water that month proved the feasibility of marine aircraft. Sippe joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914 and participated that November in a famous bombing raid on Friedrichshafen.

Supermarine staff line up in front of the sole Swan flying-boat (initially an amphibian) during a visit by Edward, Prince of Wales, in June 1924. Among those present are designer R.J. Mitchell (third from right), and partly obscured by Mitchell, Henri Biard, who had made the aircraft’s maiden flight that March.

The first production Supermarine Southampton, N9896, made its first flight in the hands of Henri Biard on March 10, 1925. After passing its tests at the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment, the type was put into production, the RAF’s No 480 (Coastal Reconnaissance) Flight receiving its first examples a mere six months later.

Sydney V. Sippe beside the Hanriot monoplane he imported from France in 1912 and flew in the first Aerial Derby from Hendon, in June of that year. Unfortunately the Hanriot suffered engine problems and Sippe was forced to withdraw.