 Wakefield had been interested in waterborne aircraft since 1909 and had performed experiments with different float designs towed at speed across Lake Windermere.Unsticking problems persisted until he visited Henri Fabre in France and got useful advice on float design.The 12 ft (3.66 m) long float for the Water Bird followed Glen Curtiss' float and was built by boat builders Borwick of Bowness-on-Windermere using mahogany with aluminium and canvas.