The Port Victoria P.V.8 Eastchurch Kitten was a lightweight biplane fighter with a wingspan of 18 feet, powered by a 35 hp ABC Gnat engine and armed with a Lewis gun.
For the first time in history, Britain was almost defenceless when the Zeppelin and Schütte-Lanz airship attacks began in January 1915. People had never been subject to indiscriminate bombing without warning and the Government was aware that the terror this inflicted was seriously undermining the war effort. This menace had to be stopped urgently.
As an example of their desperation, the Admiralty had an idea for a one-trip, “disposable“ short take-off, high-altitude fighter, deployed from ships patrolling the Channel and North Sea. Upon hearing the noise of a Zeppelin, the aircraft would take off from the deck of a ship, intercept the airship, shoot it down, then ditch into the sea. Hopefully, the pilot could be then be picked up by his ship?
The Royal Naval Air Service Experimental Construction Depot at Port Victoria, Isle of Grain, produced two concepts, the PV7 ‘Grain’ Kitten and the P.V.8 ‘Eastchurch’ Kitten. The P.V.8 proved to be the best and made its first flight on 1st September 1917 achieving 95 mph.
The P.V.8 was a pleasant aeroplane to fly but the 35 h.p. Gnat engine was unreliable and under-powered, and by June 1917 the Zeppelin threat had ended and the project was cancelled. In March 1918 it was packed for shipping to the USA for evaluation and that’s where the story ends. It was never known if it ever made the journey across the Atlantic.
By 2012 a basic fuselage had been storage at the Yorkshire Air Museum for over 25 years and two young French aviation design students undertaking a placement at the Museum, were able to assist the reconstruction by the Museum’s Aircraft Engineering Dept. The team was led by Museum aircraft engineers, Ray “Mac” McElwain and Brian Watmough.
It was re-skinned with Irish linen, re-tensioned then re-painted in an original RNAS scheme. A similar twin cylinder air-cooled engine was found and all the controls re-fitted, so that this 97 year-old design lived again.
Although non-flying, the “Kitten” can taxi under its own power and has been exhibited in various locations around UK for the WWI centenary commemorations alongside the Museum’s other WWl fighters. It has been extensively filmed for TV and its first live public debut took place in 2014 in Leeds City Centre for the start of the Great War Commemorations in May 2014.
In 2015 the Port Victoria P.V.8 Eastchurch Kitten was re-assembled INSIDE the Headquarters of the Royal Aeonautical Society (former home of the Duke of Wellington) near Hyde Park Corner in Mayfair, London. The Museum sponsored the 2015 RAeS Sopwith Lecture and it was quite a surprise for those attending!