Short Sarafand
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| Sarafand | |
|---|---|
| Type | flying boat |
| Manufacturer | Short Brothers |
| Maiden flight | 30 June 1932 |
| Retired | 1936 |
| Primary user | Royal Air Force Seaplane Experimental Station at Felixstowe |
| Number built | 1 |
The Short S.14 Sarafand was a British biplane flying boat built by Short Brothers. It was planned as a general reconnaissance aircraft for military service.
The Sarafand was first proposed by Oswald Short in 1928 as an enlarged development of the Singapore II, to provide transatlantic range capabilitity. Short managed to persuade first his chief designer Arthur Gouge and then the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Hugh Trenchard (later Viscount Trenchard) of the feasibility of such a large aircraft and Air Ministry specification R.6/28 was drawn up to define the project. It was conducted as a public/private joint venture, the Air Ministry funding it with £60,000 and Short Brothers providing the rest.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Design
Due to the high wing end loads, Gouge specified corrugated steel spars for both upper and lower wings. The six engines, in tractor/pusher pairs, were housed in monocoque nacelles mounted between the wings on integral girders; the central nacelle was further supported by two pairs of splayed struts to the lower wing-roots. The hull, largely constructed of anodised Alclad, had a stainless-steel planing bottom.[2]
[edit] Operational history
The maiden flight, with Shorts' Chief Test Pilot, John Lankester Parker at the controls and Oswald Short as co-pilot, was made at Rochester on the River Medway on 30 June 1932[3]. Only one S.14 was built (serial S1589) and it was later used for experimental flying at the Seaplane Experimental Station at Felixstowe. The Sarafand was scrapped there in 1936.
[edit] Operators
[edit] Specifications
Data from British Aircraft Directory[4]
General characteristics
- Crew: 9 (2 pilots, navigator, radio operator, engineer, four gunners)
- Length: 89 ft 6 in (27.3 m)
- Wingspan: 120 ft (36.6 m)
- Height: ()
- Wing area: 3,460 sq ft (214 m²)
- Empty weight: 44,750 lb (20,300 kg)
- Loaded weight: 70,000 lb (31,700 kg)
- Powerplant: 6× Rolls-Royce Buzzard in three tractor/pusher pairs, 825 hp () each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 150 mph (246 km/h)
- Range: 1,450 miles (2,337 km)
- Service ceiling 12,000 ft (3,660 m)
Armament Four 0.303 in Lewis machine guns mounted on Scarff rings; provision was made for a 37-mm 1½-pounder shell-firing gun to replace the bow Lewis gun.[5]
[edit] References
- Barnes C.H. & James D.N. Shorts Aircraft since 1900. London (1989): Putnam, 560. ISBN 0-85177-819-4.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
Related development Short Singapore
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