Airplane on a Submarine
100th ANNIVERSARY
5 NOVEMBER 1923
AIRPLANE ON A SUBMARINE
Several 20th century navies experimented with the deployment of aircraft from a submarine, but the Japanese are perhaps the best remembered. They successfully operated combat aircraft from their I-class submarines–famously launching a floatplane off our Oregon coast in 1942. Their partially disassembled planes were stored in large, waterproof tanks bolted to the sub’s deck. The sub would surface, the floatplane would be withdrawn from its hangar, assembled, and catapulted into the air. The two-seat monoplane could be recovered after landing on the water near the boat. The Japanese employed this concept to drop incendiary bombs on Oregon’s forests on 9 September 1942 in an attempt to start fires that would alarm the American public and potentially burn large tracts along our coast. Our US Navy had experimented with the concept of aircraft aboard submarines as well, decades before.
Recognizing that cruising submarines could only spot targets on their visual horizon, our Navy attempted to marry the seaplane to the submarine after World War I. Existing biplane designs of the 1920s were too large, and one prominent aircraft manufacturer of that day, the Glenn L. Martin Company, was consulted. They developed a downsized single-seat biplane floatplane designated the MS-1. With a range of 200 miles and a top speed of 100 MPH, her 18-foot fuselage and 18-foot wingspan could be disassembled to fit into an 8-foot cylindrical “hangar” abaft of a sub’s conning tower. Six unarmed MS-1s were built–strictly for scouting as their short wingspan and 60 HP engine could not provide the lift to carry bombs, guns, or extra personnel. The MS-1 enjoyed its first flight off Lake Erie early in 1923. The Navy then selected S-1 (SS-105) that had been commissioned in June 1920. (The S-class were simply designated alpha-numerically). On 2 January 1923 S-1 was reassigned as the only boat in Submarine Division 0, a group specifically designated for aircraft experimentation.
By November 1923 the MS-1 had proven a workable scout plane, and S-1 had been fitted with the appropriate hangar. On this day a collapsed MS-1 was packed into S-1’s deck hangar. While the boat lay in Hampton Roads, aviation rates from the carrier USS LANGLEY (CV-1) under LCDR V.C. Griffin pulled the scout plane from its hangar. LT P.M. Rhea flooded his submarine down until the seaplane floated free and took off, accomplishing the first successful launch of a plane from an American submarine. S-1 continued to develop submarine-launched aviation technology, achieving the first complete cycle of surfacing, assembly, launch, retrieval, disassembly, and submergence on 28 July 1926. But only a short time later in that same year the project was cancelled!
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 8-9 NOV 23
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Cooney, David M. A Chronology of the U.S. Navy: 1775-1965. New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 240.
Department of the Navy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare). United States Naval Aviation 1910-1980. Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 56.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 177.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The average biplane bomber or torpedo plane of that day had a wingspan of 50-60 feet and engines producing several hundred horsepower.
S-1 was returned to operational duties following this project and remained in service until April 1942, when she was loaned to the Royal Navy. The British returned the sub in late 1944, by then grossly outdated. She was ultimately sold for scrap 20 July 1945, two weeks before the Hiroshima bombing.
