Supermarine Southampton

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Southampton

Type	Military Flying Boat
Manufacturer	Supermarine
Maiden flight	10 March 1925
Primary users	Royal Air Force Argentina Australia Japan
Number built	83
Variants	Scapa StranraerStranraer

The Supermarine Southampton was one of the most successful flying boats of the between-war period. It was a development of the Supermarine Swan, which was used for a 10 passenger service between England and France.

1 History
2 Description
3 Power Plants
4 Operators
- 4.1 Military Operators
- 4.2 Civil Operators
5 Specifications (Southampton II)
6 Reference

[edit] History

The Southampton was designed by the team of RJ. Mitchell, better known as the designer of the Spitfire. Because of the success of the Swan, the Air Ministry ordered six Southamptons direct from the drawing board, which was very unusual. As the Swan had acted in effect as a prototype, development time was short. The first flight of a production aircraft was made on 10 March 1925, and delivery to the RAF started in the middle of 1925. Further aircraft were sold to a number of other countries. Eight were sold to the Argentine, while Turkey & Australia brought one aircraft each. Japan also purched a single aircraft which was later converved into an 18 passenger cabin airliner. One aircraft was placed on the British Civil Register (G-AASH) and was operated by Imperial Airways. In all 83 Southamptons were constructed. This does not include the single Southampton MK X which had three engines and was a single prototype.

[edit] Description

The Southampton was a two-engine biplane flying boat. The Southampton Mk I had both its hull and its wings manufactured from wood. The Southampton Mk II had a hull with a single thickness of metal (the Mk I had a double wooden bottom). This change gave a weight saving of 900 lb (409 kg) allowing for an increase of range of approximately 200 miles (325 km). In 1929 twenty-four of the Mk I were converted by having newly built metal hulls replacing the wooden ones. Some of the later aircraft were built with metal wings and were probably desinated as Mk III. There were three positions for machine guns, one in the nose and two staggered in the rear fuselage.