Felixstowe F.5

The Felixstowe F.5 was a refinement if the F.3 with a strengthened hull and balanced control surfaces. It arrived too late to see operational service in World War One.

In a strange twist, the F.5 was taken up and produced after the war in America, so the line of flying boats that started with the Curtiss H-12 "Large America" had passed from the F.2, F.3, and finally returned to the USA in the F.5. The American version used twin 400hp Liberty engines and was designed the F-5L. Fifteen F.5s were purchased by Japan in 1921.

Large numbers of F.5Ls were ordered by the U.S. Navy: fifty from Canadian Aeroplanes; 480 from the National Aircraft Factory; and Sixty from Curtiss, but most were cancelled as the war concluded. The F.5 remained in service with the British through 1925 and even longer with the Americans.