Supermarine Air Yacht

Infobox Aircraft
name = Air Yacht
type = Luxury flying boat
manufacturer = Supermarine


caption =
designer =
first flight = February 1930
introduction = 1930
retired =
status =
primary user = Private owners
more users =
produced = 1930
number built = 1
unit cost =
variants with their own articles =

The Supermarine Air Yacht was a British luxury passenger-carrying flying boat designed and built by the Supermarine Aviation Works.

Development

The Supermarine Air Yacht was a three-engined luxury flying boat built at Woolston in 1929 for the Hon. Arthur Ernest Guinness for pleasure cruises around the Mediterranean. At its first flight in February 1930 at Hythe, England the take-off run was found to be excessive, and the aircraft was rejected by Guinness. In October 1932 the Air Yacht was bought by a Mrs J.J. James and re-engined with three 525 hp Armstrong Siddeley Panther IIAs. Given the name "Windward III" it left Woolston for Egypt on the 11 October 1932, but on 25 January 1933 it was damaged near Capri, Italy. It was dismantled and returned to Woolston and then scrapped.

Design

The Supermarine Air Yacht was a three-engined monoplane flying boat with hull-mounted sponsons instead of the wing-mounted floats more common on aircraft of this type. The hull was metal, and the wing was held above the fuselage on struts. The single braced tailplane had three vertical fins and rudders.

The crew were accommodated in four open cockpits in the nose, and the passengers sat in an enclosed cabin beneath the wing.

pecifications

aircraft specifications
plane or copter?= plane
jet or prop?= prop
crew= 4
capacity = 6 passengers
length main= 66 ft 6 in
length alt= 20.3 m
span main= 92 ft
span alt= 28 m
height main= 19 ft
height alt= 5.8 m
loaded weight main= 23,348 lb
loaded weight alt= 10,590 kg
empty weight main= 16,808 lb
empty weight alt= 7624 kg
engine (prop)= Armstrong Siddeley Panther IIA
number of props= 3
power main= 525 hp
power alt= 391.5 kW
max speed main= 102 kt
max speed alt= km/h
range main=
range alt=

ee also

* List of seaplanes and flying boats

References

* [http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/aircraftpage.php?ID=188 British Aircraft Directory]
* [http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/KleinBernhard/5649.htm Photo]
* A.J.Jackson, "British Civil Aircraft since 1919" Volume 3, Putnam & Company, London, 1974, ISBN 370 10014 X

External links

* [http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1930/Untitled0%20-%200258.html Flight 28 February 1930 (article on Air Yacht)]
* [http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1932/1932%20-%201062.html Flight 20 October 1932 (article "By Air Yacht to the Mediterranean")]