On this day 1 December 1911

First landing on water.

In 1911, Lieutenant Arthur Murray Longmore and aircraft engineer Oswald Short installed streamlined air bags on the undercarriage struts and under the tail of an Improved S.27 No.38 to enable the aircraft to land on water. On 1 December 1911, Longmore used the aircraft to become the first person in the United Kingdom to take off from land and make a successful water landing when he landed in the river Medway off Sheerness, after which No.38 was brought ashore and flown back to Eastchurch.