Saro A.33
| A.33 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Flying boat |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Saunders-Roe Limited |
| First flight | 14 October 1938 |
| Status | Destroyed |
| Number built | 1 |
|
| |
The Saro A.33 was a British prototype flying boat built by Saunders-Roe Limited in response to a British Air Ministry Specification R.2/33 and in competition with the Short Sunderland.
Design and development
The A.33 was a four-engined flying-boat with a parasol monospar wing, the wing was supported by two angled N-struts which connected the wing to hull-mounted sponsons. The hull-mounted sponsons were used rather than wingtip floats and were also used as fuel tanks. A Saro Cloud was modified with a monospar wing and sponsons to test the design concepts. The A.33 serial number K4773 first flew on 14 October 1938. Unfortunately, the A33 prototype was written off after structural failure sustained during high-speed taxi trials on 25 October 1938 and development was abandoned.[1] A production contract for eleven aircraft was cancelled.
Specifications
Data from British Flying Boats [2]
General characteristics
- Length: 75 ft 0 in (22.87 m)
- Wingspan: 95 ft 0 in (28.96 m)
- Height: 22 ft 8½ in (6.92 m)
- Wing area: 1,194 ft² (111.0 m²)
- Empty weight: 31,500 lb (14,320 kg)
- Loaded weight: 41,500 lb (18,864 kg)
- Powerplant: 4 × Bristol Perseus XII 9-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 830 hp (619 kW) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 174 knots (200 mph, 322 km/h)
- Cruise speed: 151 knots (174 mph, 280 km/h)
- Service ceiling: 14,280 ft (4,350 m)
- Wing loading: 34.8 lb/ft² (170 kg/m²)
- Power/mass: 0.08 hp/lb (0.13 kW/kg)
- Endurance: 12 hr
Armament
- Guns: Machine guns in bow and tail turrets and two beam positions
- Bombs: 2,000 lb (909 kg) bombs
See also
- Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
- Related lists
References
- Notes
- ↑ Flight International - 29 July 1989. Flightglobal.com Retrieved: 15 February 2009
- ↑ London 2003, pp.262-263.
- Bibliography
- London, Peter. British Flying Boats. Stroud, UK:Sutton Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7509-2695-3.
External links
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