Editing Supermarine (section)

===World War I===
[[File:Scott-Paine timing 500.jpg|thumb|upright|Hubert Scott-Paine]]
At the outbreak the First World War Billing enlisted in the Royal Navy Volunteer reserve, and thus he was no longer involved in day-to-day activities.
With the business by now in serious financial trouble due to a lack of orders, 80 per cent of the staff were fired, leaving only 14 employees. On 14 November 1914 Broughton used his resources to pay off the company's debits which allowed the company to continue in business. Some work was obtained repairing aircraft subcontracting from Sopwith. Broughton then enlisted which left Scott-Paine in charge.{{sfn|Pegram|2016|p=15}} At some point in 1914 Carol Vasilesco died suddenly of a heart attack, which left the company without a designer.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

In early 1915 the company obtained work building 12 Short S.38 seaplanes under licence.{{sfn|Pegram|2016|p=15}}

Work continued on the company's own designs with the next to see the light of day being the P.B.23. The prototype was delivered in September 1915 with tests conducted at Heldon indicating that the design had some promise. As a result, a revised version designated the [[Pemberton-Billing P.B.25|P.B.25]] was produced, for which an order for 20 was received from the [[Royal Naval Air Service]]. In late 1915 having completed serving with the RNVR and RNAS Billing returned to the company. As a result of his experience while involved in the organising of the air raid in November 1914 on the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen on [[Lake Constance]] Billing believed that England was defenceless against attacks by Zeppelins.{{sfn|Pegram|2016|p=15}}<ref>{{cite web |last= Forder  |first= Nick |title= The Friedrichshafen Raid |publisher= Avro Aircraft |url= http://www.verdon-roe.co.uk/the-friedrichshafen-raid |access-date= 13 March 2018 }}</ref>

As a result, his return led to the company concentrating on designing the quadruplane P.B.29, which was designed to shoot down Zeppelins.
In May 1916 the company was awarded by the [[Air Department|Air Department of the Admiralty]] a contract to build the flying surfaces for the [[AD Flying Boat|AD flying boat]] and to undertake the detailed design and construction of the [[AD Navyplane]]. The AD Flying Boat was initially found to have poor performance in the water, which were eventually resolved. This led to 34 being built, though none saw service.{{sfn|Pegram|2016|p=16}}