This 1918 Flora Lion is also in the First World War exhibition in York, it is called Building Flying Boats and is equally extraordinary technically (although  perhaps not quite so heart-stoppingly memorable  – that blue dress! the two young women in the foreground!). This is what the Imperial War Museum site says about Building Flying Boats: ‘Flying boats (designed with a boat-like fuselage for landing and take off from water) were used extensively by the British during WWI, notably for spotting German U-boats by following mathematically constructed search patterns. Although the technology of flight demanded precision design and the use of the aircraft was sophisticated, they are being manufactured using traditional carpentry skills. Workmen at benches, using planes and scrapers, are hand manufacturing the individual components for this most modern machine. The setting is probably the Belle Vue Barracks, Manningham, Bradford where many planes were assembled.’