RAF Hawker Ospreys?

Mon, 11/25/2024 - 20:54

This is one of the photos that I showed in the recent "Lucky Dip" video.

IDJ wrote in with some ideas about the aircraft, and would be glad to hear what other readers think:

In your first video of eBay purchases you show floatplanes at Repulse Bay.

Unfortunately, no markings can be discerned on the aircraft. i.e. RAF roundels on top of the wings. However the round tail fins suggest they are RAF Hawker Ospreys of the 1930s, possibly on an unauthorised “Jolly” for tiffen at the hotel. While there were other RAF floatplane types at Kai Tak in that period they had distinctive square or rectangular tail fins.

This is the only image I have seen of RAF aircraft using Repulse Bay. I don’t recall any mention of a visit in the newspapers although it’s in full view of the public. Usually if RAF floatplanes are pictured on a beach or the shore other than Kowloon Bay they have had engine trouble or whatever. The other possibility is that they are from Macau’s Naval Air Arm that also flew Hawker Ospreys. They did visit Hong Kong occasionally.

De Ricou with his ‘AIR Days’ in 1920 was the principal brief floatplane user of Repulse Bay prewar.

Date picture taken

unknown

Comments

Re: Repulse Bay Photos

Difficult to identify the aircraft.

I think the two Repulse Bay images were likely related as they are numbered at bottom left. Perhaps taken on the same day but from different locations in the garden of the Repulse Bay Hotel given the boat passing the headland at top middle and sailing boat at right.

In the video, the Repulse Bay photo on top was a common tourist photo and originally produced by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels as a postcard. I have seen a date of 1930 for it which means the photos would have been taken earlier than this year.

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Update

Upon further investigation, the original photos came in a folder showing 12 scenes of the interior and exterior views of the Repulse Bay Hotel:

Photo 9 - Seaplanes in Repulse Bay, Hong Kong

Photo 12 - Repulse Bay from Hotel Steps, Hong Kong

It is very likely the seaplanes in Photo 9 would have been those belonging to Captain Charles de Ricou's Macao Aerial Transport Company. His Aeromarine 39B floatplanes had the rounded tailfins.