A class of bilinear stochastic partial differential equations is investigated using a semigroup approach. Existence of a mild solution is obtained by proving a maximal inequality for stochastic convolution integrals with a stochastic evolution operator U(t,s) as integrand; moreover, we show the existence of a regular version in t. Under an additional assumption we show the existence of a continuous version of U (.,.) in the space of bounded operators on the state space. Finally, we analyse a p.d.e. model of a simply supported beam to illustrate the applicability of our results to modelling uncertainty in large flexible space structures