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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1316.PDF
472 FLIGHT, 2 October 1953 Sea King II Channel. SIRES OF THE SWIFT ... spun with impunity, and was armed with a Lewis gun. The span was 32ft and the gross weight 2,850 lb. Channel.—A post-war development of the A.D. boat, the Channel was laid out for commercial operation, carrying a pilot and three passengers. The engine of die Mk I machine was a 160 h.p. Beardmore, but the Channel II had a 240 h.p. Siddeley Puma and a redesigned step for cleaner running. Span and length were 50ft 4in and 30ft respectively, and the wings were arranged to fold forwards. Military versions were developed for various foreign governments. That supplied to Chile was, according to a contemporary account, "fitted with dual controls, the latest and most up-to-date wireless telegraphy and telephony sets, bomb- dropping gear for practice with dummy bombs, and a machine gun mounted in the nose." Seal and Seagull Biplanes.—These were not distinct types, but versions of the same airframe. The characteristic Supermarine circular-section hull was retained but the Napier Lion engine drove a tractor, instead of a pusher, airscrew. There were two marks of Seal and four of the Seagull (not including the Seagull V, which eventually became the Walrus). The Seagull II differed from the Mk I in tankage arrangements and other details, and the Seagull III, which was produced in quantity for the R.A.F. and the R.A.A.F., carried all its fuel beneath the top centre-section. The Mk IV was an experimental machine fitted with Handley Page slots and flaps and twin rudders. Sea Lion.—There were three marks of the Sea Lion, the first of which was a cleaned-up Sea King with a Lion engine and with the undercarriage removed. The Mk II—a development for the 1922 Schneider Race, in which it was victorious—differed in having a redesigned bow, fin and rudder, and the Mk III, which, in racing trim, achieved a maximum speed of 175 m.p.h., was distinguished by clipped wings, revised engine cowling and modi fied hull. A feature of the Sea Lion design (and, for that matter, of the Sea King also) was the ease of engine maintenance; the wing and engine mounting could be removed from the hull by releasing eight bolts. Competition Amphibian.—For the Air Ministry's competition for commercial amphibians held during September, 1920, Super- marine entered a biplane powered with a 360 h.p. Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII, which drove a pusher propeller. The planing surfaces were larger than those of the Channel and the bows of the hull more pointed, resembling those of the Sea King. The wings did not fold. Two passengers were seated forward of the pilot, under a hinged "conservatory" roof. The pilot had a short tiller, by means of which he could steer the craft while standing up in the cockpit. Sea Eagle.—This was another commercial amphibian, with a Rolls-Royce Eagle DC driving a pusher propeller. It was, however, Walrus. Seagull III. Above, Sea Eagle. Below .Scarab.
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