There is a principle in aviation where by an aeroplane can carry more in flight than in take off. Getting around this problem was one of the many challenges to the first aeroplane's carrying mail across the Atlantic and in true 1930's style, the design chosen by Short Brothers for Imperial Airways in 1935 was as ambitious as it was unique. It was called the Composite Aircraft and it was basically one four engined seaplane mounted piggy back onto a larger aircraft known as a flying boat. The difference between these two lies in the nature of the air craft's hull; as you can see on the images, a sea plane has floats, or 'pontoons' attached by pylons to its hull where as a flying boat sits hull down in the water.
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Seaplanes were big news in Europe and the United States between the world wars. The wedding of air and sea vehicles into one 'go anywhere' design seems to have really caught the public imagination after the first world war, not least thanks to a series of sporadic races which were held between 1913 and 1931 known as the Schneider Trophy. There was a real sense of technical achievement 'pushing the envolope' in those days and the races were followed by thousands of enthusiasts. Short Brothers, the first true aviation company in the world was a leading manufacturer of sea planes and flying boats in the 1920's and 1930's and was naturally also involved in the Schneider Trophy.
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Amongst other interesting designs they developed as a consequence of the races were the worlds first all-metal, multiple engined flying boats, the Singapore series. The S.19 Singapore III variant of which was the RAF's main long range biplane maritime patrol in the 1930's. This series, amongst others, was a direct percursor to the Composite Aircraft design. Short Brothers had previously attempted to create a more powerful engine configerations with the prototype S.12 Singapore II which mounted 4 engines, mounted in tractor/pusher pairs (push-pull configuration). This didn't work as well as might have been desired and this is where the Composite Aircraft design came to the fore.
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Maia was a variant of the "C-Class" Empire boat with extensive modifications, in particular her wings were redesigned to allow room for Mercury's floats and to provide more lift. Earlier C-class flying boats had been contemplated for trans Atlantic mail flights, but it was found that the aircraft could only make the trip if its entire cargo capacity consisted of fuel leaving no room for the mail bags!
Maia, named after the Greek goddess and mother to Mercury (messenger of the gods) had a crew of three and boasted four Bristol Pegasus XC radial engines yielding 919 hp (686 kW) each.
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Mercury was a prototype sea plane variant designated Short S.20. She had a mail capacity of 1,000lb (456kg) and with the help of Maya could cross the Atlantic with ease. By herself however Mercury could not even get off the water with the amount of fuel needed for the full trip. The first successful trans Atlantic flight was made in 1938 and two years later, on 6th October 1938 Mercury established an as yet unbroken non stop international seaplane distance record of 5,997.5 miles (9,652 km) from Dundee to the Orange River, South Africa.
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Maya & Mercury were the first ever non stop trans Atlantic service by a heavier than air aircraft (the Zeppelins had already been at it before them). Mercury could cross the Atlantic in 20 hours 21 minutes, at an average speed of 137 mph (220 km/h) so she could deliver the mail much faster then the slower airships. Later she was also sent to Alexandra in Egypt.
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Only one Composite Aircraft was ever built, and I'm not sure how the return journeys were made. Presumably the need for a mothership to lift Mercury into the air meant a second aircraft had to be stationed at the other end, but I see no evidence of this. Its a mystery to me how the Mercury was ever able to return with the mail... However it was managed, the Composite Aircraft was soon rendered obsolete by the introduction of the "G-Class" Empire boat and ended its days in the war when Maia was bombed during a German air raid and Mercury was cannibalized for her parts.
Contemporay articles from Time magazine:
5 comments:
Nice pics. I've always loved the Short sunderland flying boat of the Second World war, it seemed to have more grace than the more utilitarian Catalina from the US.
Maia and Mercury were built in Rochester, where I used to live, and I remeber looking at the river trying to figure out where they actually kept. Its all changed now. The Medway used to be a real industrial centre with the old Chatham Naval Yards just down river and Aveling and Porter (steam traction engines and rollers) used to have their main factories right across the river from Rochester castle. Needless to say, Short Brothers facilities seem to have long since gone the way of the UK's heavy industry's.
The Sainsburys in Strood had a giant wall print of the two planes parked just below the castle.
I myself always loved the Catalinas. From what I've heard, though, they tended to be fumish from the petrol.
One story in that light concerns the famous flight of American naval aircraft that succumbed to the Bermuda Triangle off the coast of Florida in 1945. One of the mysterious happenings during the night of their disappearance was a bright flash off the coast. Turns out that a Catalina was sent out on a search and rescue mission and presumably exploded over the water that night.
I should have supposedly succumbed.
The waters off the eastern Florida coast are quite deep, which would make a search/rescue/recovery mission quite difficult. Even so, one of the planes was finally found in deep water a few years ago.
I quite like the look of the Catalina. It has a sort of timelessness about it. Like a retro future design. Those big bubbles on its back make me think of an insect.
Going on the look n feel of them, I prefer older aeroplanes to newer ones. They just strike me as being more interesting. Modern aircraft, designed by commitee's and built at masive cost by hundreds of people represent something so far removed from the individual human spirit as to be anonymous.
Older aircraft, held together by trial and error, the brain children of individual men* and flown by pilots who'd grown up along side their machines, just seem that much more interesting. Romantic. Inspiring.
(* and women too I suppose though I don't know of any female air craft designers from the golden era)
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