Saunders-Roe S.R./A.1 - "Visions of Greatness"

Suggestions Aircraft
1
Would you like to see the S.R./A.1 in game?
  • Yes, as a tech tree vehicle
  • Yes, as a premium vehicle
  • Yes, as an event vehicle
  • Yes, as a squadron vehicle
  • No, I would not like to see the S.R./A.1 in game.
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🇬🇧 S.R./A.1 🇬🇧

The first A.1 prototype, serial code TG263 lies moored under sunny skies at what is presumably Cowes or Southampton but could be any English town (any which ever gets good weather, anyway.) Of the three A.1 prototypes produced, the latter two (TG267 and TG271) crashed which sadly resulted in one fatality. The pictured aircraft resides at Solent Sky today along with one of its engines, the other of which was used in a record-setting speedboat.

Introduction

      The flying boat: a bygone aviation icon. While not exactly gone from the civilian scene, besides some limited efforts, military flying boats were essentially dead by the 1950’s and have not been revived. This can mainly be attributed to the rapid development of improved aircraft carriers and constant efforts to extend planes’ range. However, they were extremely popular not even a decade earlier. The majority of flying boats in the pre-WWII period and during the conflict were long-range endurance types which flew slowly at low altitude, making them perfect for arduous duties such as anti-shipping, anti-submarine warfare, and search and rescue missions. Floatplanes and flying boats were well known for their ability to operate in the atolls of the Pacific theater which was unforgiving terrain for traditional land based fighters. While the fires of the war in the Pacific raged, the lack of requirement for an aircraft carrier or airstrip for floatplane fighters gave the designers at Saunders-Roe an idea for a niche that a new aircraft design could fulfill.

      By observing the tactical utility of floatplane fighters, and thanks to the fortuitous timing of jet engines hitting the aircraft design scene, Saunders-Roe were able to successfully convince the Ministry of Aircraft Production - who had dabbled in floatplane versions of various fighter aircraft already - to sign on to a radical new idea: a jet-powered flying boat which would outclass existing maritime aircraft. Due to shifting doctrines, the end of the war, and other troubles, the A.1 would end up in an unfortunate position. While it did not make as much of a mark on the course of the aviation industry as Saunders-Roe probably would have liked, the S.R./A.1 is fondly remembered and is a testament to the ingenuity of its creators.


TL;DR

  • Flying boat first generation jet fighter prototype
  • Large, spacious hull to troll AA guns in War Thunder allow for waterborne takeoffs and landings
  • Stated top speed of just over 500 mph - low for its raw thrust/weight ratio
  • Cannon, bomb and rocket armament
  • Surprisingly good maneuverability

Why it should be in the game: For starters, it’s a flying boat jet fighter. While the U.S. and U.S.S.R. notably produced flying boat jet bombers, of all the nations in game and besides, there has been one flying boat jet fighter ever made. This makes the S.R./A.1 profoundly unique. Plus, it has good agility and a solid thrust/weight ratio to fall back on. Finally, if it comes to it, this is an incredible option for a squadron or event vehicle. I like to see as many vehicles as possible be researchable normally but this is a pretty compelling case for a weird, wacky event plane that people can just have fun in. Overall it would be a welcome addition to the early jet era.

As an aside, I believe that the stated top speed is not accurate to the jet’s final performance. Consider that the Meteor F Mk.II with 3,000 lbf H.1b engines had a top speed of around 500 miles per hour. The Meteor F.4 with 3,500 lbf Derwent 5s - a 16.67% increase in thrust - had a top speed of over 600 miles per hour. The A.1 went from 3,250 lbf Beryls on the first prototype to 3,850 lbf uprated Beryls on the third (necessitating a larger intake), which is an 18.5% increase. I am not going to attempt to estimate the effects the A.1’s radically different hull design would have on things like drag (especially with Saro’s efforts to minimize said drag) but the plane was capable of reaching 624 miles per hour in a dive. A level top speed in the 570+ mph range or 550 at minimum seems more plausible for the final prototype which is the version I believe should be represented in game. This would make its performance more appropriate for the battle rating it inevitably ends up at due to its maneuverability and other characteristics putting it more in line with late Meteor variants.


History

One of the floatplane Spitfire attempts is seen here in flight. Despite the floats being purpose-designed by Arthur Shirvall of Supermarine the top speed of the aircraft was still significantly decreased. This was an unavoidable fact of floatplane fighters which Saunders-Roe sought to overcome.

      The British interest in fighters that could take off from waterways reportedly goes as far back as the advent of fighter aircraft with Specification N.1B in 1916 requesting a single-seat floatplane or flying boat fighter for the Royal Navy Air Service. These did not catch on due to the successful use of traditional aircraft from shipborne flight decks and later catapults, but every shipborne fighter until the Gloster Gladiator had the ability to switch its traditional landing gear to floats for operational flexibility. It seemed as if the idea of floatplane fighters was on its way out. However, between the 1940 invasion of Norway and the beginning of the war in the Pacific, plenty of interest was generated in exploring the concept again. The original idea was to convert Spitfires and Hurricanes to floatplanes. These were decently successful designs but never underwent quantity production. Blackburn’s B.44 was drawn up to a specification specifically for a single-seat flying boat fighter but did not leave the drawing board. The commitment to land-based and carrier-based fighters was already taxing British production to its limits and they simply could not afford to pursue something that had no proven utility. While it’s said that enemy floatplanes such as the Arado Ar 196 and Nakajima A6M2-N served as inspiration, it seems that the idea of a high performance waterborne fighter was generally dismissed until the advent of turbojet technology.

This cutaway of the S.R./A.1 shows how much simpler a flying boat design with jet propulsion could be compared to an equivalent performance piston-engined plane. The reduced drag and simplicity of construction made the flying boat jet fighter an attractive proposition.

      Saunders-Roe asserted that they could only fully realize the idea of their flying boat fighter once the turbojet engine entered the aviation scene. The jet engine eliminated any mechanical complexities that the use of traditional piston engines would cause and promised superior speed and climb to existing aircraft. It seems that they were not the only ones enthusiastic about the idea as in 1944 the Air Ministry drew up Specification E.6/44 specifically for the Saunders-Roe jet fighter. The selected MetroVick Beryl jet engines that would power the new plane had their own problems and design work was protracted due to other priorities, so the first prototype of the now named A.1 would only fly on July 16, 1947. The wartime period of enthusiasm for new designs (and associated funding) was gone with the ceasing of hostilities. Coupled with the fact that jet plane performance was advancing at an unbelievable rate, despite its impressive dive speed of 1,000 km/h the A.1 would be left in the dust unless it could be re-engined. This would be no small feat and so no effort was ever put into doing so.

The very same plane that had crashed a year later was wowing crowds in 1948. Here Geoffery Tyson took the S.R./A.1 into an inverted flyby very close to the ground. A somewhat similar maneuver was unsuccessfully attempted in 1949 in practice leading to the destruction of the aircraft and the death of its pilot.

      To make matters worse, the second and third prototypes both crashed in accidents with only the first surviving to this day. The third prototype’s accident resulted in the death of Squadron Leader Kenneth Albert Major who was practicing aerobatic maneuvers for the upcoming Battle of Britain celebratory airshow. This was deemed to be more so due to pilot error more than any inherent fault of the plane. In fact, despite how massive it may seem the A.1 was not significantly larger than the Gloster Meteor and only barely bigger than the McDonnell F2H-3/4 Banshee. It only appears larger because of the small canopy which did have poor visibility but did not make for cramped conditions due to the cockpit being recessed into the hull. The only real outlier was its height owing to the flying boat hull shape and overall its maneuverability and speed were indeed comparable to land-based fighters of its time of design. Despite its smaller size the A.1 couldn’t operate from aircraft carriers and would require seaplane tenders - infrastructure that simply did not exist and served as another knock against it. For the A.1 the final nail in the coffin would come in the form of its MetroVick Beryl engines - the company ceased production on all jet engines including the Beryl. Without a new powerplant the A.1 would simply never be able to enter mass production. While the idea of revamping it was reportedly floated once the onset of the Korean War jump-started military R&D, it was not taken particularly seriously. The one surviving prototype of the A.1 would remain in storage until being passed around through various museums. Its current permanent home is in a hangar at the Solent Sky Museum. The other Saunders-Roe postwar aircraft designs were a series of swings and misses and the company was eventually merged with Westland Aircraft despite their expertise in rocketry giving them something of a niche.

You can see the sole surviving S.R./A.1 at the Solent Sky Museum if you ever find yourself in the area. Good thing they built three of them! The landing gear here is a reconstruction of the system fitted to the third prototype and can be assumed to be non-functional. This first prototype reportedly lost its original canopy in flight; by the time it stopped flying it was left with quite possibly one of the worst pilot rear views of all time besides maybe the MiG-31.


Basic timeline of events

  • 1943:
    • Metropolitan-Vickers begins design work for the F.2/4 Beryl jet engine
    • (Mid-1943) Saunders-Roe presents jet-powered flying boat concept to Air Ministry
    • Air Ministry asks for revisions
  • 1944:
    • (March/April) Specification E.6/44 is written for the revised Saunders-Roe jet fighter
    • F.2/4 is chosen as the aircraft’s powerplant
    • (May) Contract for three prototypes is inked
    • F.2/4 bench test delayed to 1945
  • 1945
    • (January) F.2/4 bench tested
    • (August 15) Imperial Japan surrenders
    • Saunders-Roe diverts resources to their Princess civilian flying boat
  • 1947
    • (July 16) First prototype TG263 makes first flight
    • (August) TG263 makes a demonstration to various officials
  • 1948
    • (April 30) Second prototype TG267 makes first flight
    • (August 17) Third prototype TG271 (with enlarged intake for more powerful Beryls) makes first flight
    • (September) TG267 shown at Farnborough airshow
  • 1949
    • (Prior to this point) TG271 fitted with retractable landing gear
    • (Prior to this point) TG263 fitted with attachment points for non-retractable landing gear
    • (Prior to this point) TG263 loses its canopy in flight
    • (Prior to this point) TG271 fitted with retractable metal canopy frame
    • (August 12) TG271 crashes, destroying the plane
    • (September 17) TG267 crashes, destroying the plane and resulting in the death of the pilot
  • 1950
    • Sole surviving prototype put into storage
    • (June 25) Korean War begins
    • (November) Interest in prototype is briefly resurrected in Britain and the U.S. due to the Korean War
  • 1951
    • (June) TG263 makes last flight

Specifications

Saunders-Roe S.R./A.1

Dimensions:

  • Length: 15.24 m (50 ft 0 in)
  • Span: 14.02 m (46 ft 0 in)
  • Height: 5.11 m (16 ft 9 in)

Weight:

  • 7,257 kg (16,000 lb) gross
  • 8,633 kg (19,033 lb) MTOW

Propulsion: 2 x Metropolitan-Vickers Beryl turbojet engine

  • 1,746 kgf (3,850 lbf) static thrust each; 3,493 kgf (7,700 lbf) thrust total

Maximum speed: 824 km/h (512 mph) (likely faster on later prototypes)

Service ceiling: 14,630 m (48,000 ft)

Armament:

  • Guns:
    • 4 x Hispano Mk.V 20 mm autocannon (190 rounds/gun, 760 rounds total)
  • Bombs:
    • Up to 2 x 1,000 lb G.P. bomb
  • Rockets:
    • Up to 16 x RP-3 rocket
  • Drop tanks:
    • Up to 2 x 141 imp. gal (641 liter) drop tank

Crew: 1

Additional equipment:

  • Airbrakes
  • Martin-Baker ejection seat
  • Retractable floats

Sources

4 Likes
2

Goofy in a way only Britain could conjure up, and as always sacrificing looks for performance.

Immediate +1 for this thing. Shame it doesn’t have a name.

Would be cool as either TT or SQN actually.