Aircraft Quiz #62

[Doug Robertson]

Once upon a time there was a very unusual design military aircraft that was the absolute very FIRST of its kind in the world. As such, there can be only ONE correct aircraft answer. But, note that I have plural questions about it to be answered.

1. Manufacturer?

2. Exact type of aircraft? Be specific.

3. Aircraft nomenclature?

4. How many crew?

5a. Manufacturer of Powerplant/s?, 5b. Power rating/s?

6. Date of first flight?

[SunvisorFlyer]

Doug- So the very first example of this type of aircraft was produced for some country's military?
Or were there company / scaled versions of the aircraft produced beforehand?

[Doug Robertson]

Answer is Yes to your first question, was built to a country's military requirement. No scaled prototype/s.

[Doug Robertson]

With over 500 looks I again will provide the quiz answers. Just how many of you can ever recall a single place military fighter that was a pure flying boat-no amphibious capability (i.e. no wheeled retractable landing gear) and that was jet propelled??? Just think for a moment or two about the logistics support for such a bizarre creation. Fueling? Refueling? Maintenance? Weapons arming/loading? Preflighting? Boarding and Unboarding, etc, etc. And, it was designed and built to a government's 1944 military requirement, not proposed first by the builder. Here are the answers.

1. Saunders-Roe.

2. World's first single seat military armed jet fighter/bomber pure flying boat, not amphibious.

3. Saunders-Roe S.R./A.1

4. One-the pilot.

5a. Metropolitan-Vickers, 5b. 3250 lb thrust each from two MVB-1 Beryl turbojets.

6. First flight: 16 July 1947, by then WWII in Europe was two years over.

Only three aircraft were built for Britain's Royal Air Force. There was a long gestation period from requirement concept in 1944 to execution of the concept. In addition to the logistics issues cited above, the air intake for the narrow two jet engines had to be high on the fuselage nose to prevent water/wave ingestion on takeoffs and landings. Ergo, with the pilot well back from the nose, forward visibility was nil on takeoffs-the view ahead disappeared during the water takeoff run. Further, the small cockpit canopy and framing did not allow good visibility in flight. One of the three built planes crashed while doing AEROBATICS! A second flipped over and sunk after striking wood debris in the water, no doubt unseen. The third thankfully wound up in a museum in Southampton, England.

A further problem was that Metropolitan-Vickers withdrew from jet engine development and stopped making the Beryl turbojet. The third aircraft flew for the last time in June 1951.

Interestingly, the aircraft was fitted with the very first production Martin-Baker ejection seat. Another first for the aircraft!

As an aside: I toured the Martin-Baker plant in Upper Denham in September 1971 on official business and met then with the elderly founder Sir James Martin, quite a treat!

Specifications

Power: two 3,250 lb/thrust Metropolitan-Vickers MVB-1 axial-flow Beryl turbojets
Crew: 1 pilot
Length: 50'
Wingspan: 46'
Height: 16'9"
Weight: 19,560 lbs.
Max speed: 512 mph
Ceiling: 48,000'
Armament: Four Hispano Mk 5 guns
Bomb load: two 1,000 lb bombs or rockets

[Malcolm Clarke]

From the days when the sole remaining aircraft, TG263, resided in the open at The Imperial War Museum, Duxford, and now as Doug says, at The Solent Sky Museum in Southampton, UK - indoors.

Some interesting footage here ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pl1aMVnZyY

... which also includes the story of the Convair Sea Dart development.

[Doug Robertson]

Thank you Malcolm,

Your input adds immensely to the quiz. It appears that some wheeled jacks were somehow used for ground display or short transport seen in the Duxford display photo. I did get to Southampton on that 1971 trip, but only to visit the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. And, I knew nothing of the quiz aircraft at that time.

By the way, the plane never had an official name, but the Saunders-Roe workers called it "Squirt".

[Malcolm Clarke]

Doug.

I hope you won't mind my suggesting that in future you try to include a picture of your quiz subjects when you finally reveal the result.

In the case of rare airframes, copyright might be an issue but I doubt that there would be any objection in this non commercial situation.

Malcolm.

[Doug Robertson]

Malcolm,

I purposely don't as a rule. I respect copyrights, and for many quizzes I do not have a non-copyrighted photo available. I do appreciate the efforts of others such as you to provide quiz aircraft photos after the fact, however, without any demurrer. It is their contribution, not mine. And that is also why I only use MY copyrighted photos of aircraft in the Articles section here, unless friends contribute their own or give me requested usage permission, which permission I acknowledge in the article. Also, after a quiz answer is given, all are free to search the Web or other resources for photos of the quiz subject aircraft.

I am quite sensitive about the usage subject-just look at how many ripoffs of my copyrighted N240R (N number now reassigned) Super Decathlon last piloted by the late Steve Fossett- photos there are all over the Web; even on a model airplane site without permission or attribution. To file a complaint, I would have had to join the site with a "handle"-it's just not worth it. At least a Russian site violator in Cyrillic kept my English copyright byline, in about 1/16 inch high letters. I did get Flight Aware to comply with my N240R photos removal request after some haggling-their initial feeble reply-"We get a million calls a day." My complaint had them add a "legalese" line about photo copyrights which they initially did NOT have when they started adding aircraft photos on their site.

I do appreciate, however, this opportunity to provide my position on the quiz photo matter.

Doug Robertson

[SunvisorFlyer]

Malcolm, that is a very nice video of the aircraft in action. It makes the story here much more real.