Supermarine Southampton
The Supermarine Southampton was a very successful British biplane flying boat in the period between the two world wars.
History
The development was based on the Supermarine Swan, who was a flying boat for ten passengers and was inserted between England and France. The Southampton was designed by the subsequent designer of the Supermarine Spitfire, Reginald J. Mitchell. Due to the success of the Swan six Southampton directly from the drawing board appointed, very unusual in the Royal Air Force. The development time from the Swan was very short. The first flight of Southampton took place on 10 March 1925. Early as mid- 1925, the six aircraft were delivered to the RAF.
Other machines were sold abroad, eight machines to Argentina, one each from Australia and Turkey. In Japan, a Southampton was converted into a 18- seater passenger aircraft later. A machine (G- Aash ) flew for Imperial Airways.
A total of 83 Southampton Southampton and an X have been built with three engines.
Construction
The Southampton was a twin-engined biplane flying boat. The type Mk I had a fuselage and wings made of wood. The Mk II already had a metal hull of duralumin. This machine was lighter by 409 kg, and could therefore continue to fly 325 km. In 1929, all the Mk I were equipped with metal hulls. The Mk III finally got also wings of duralumin.
The machine had three MG- courts, in the aircraft nose and two in the rear fuselage.
Engine variants
- Mk I - Napier Lion V
- Mk II - Napier Lion Va
- Argentine Mk I - Lorraine 12E
- Turkish Mk I - Hispano- Suiza 12Nbr
- Experimentally, Bristol Jupiter IX and Rolls- Royce Kestrel
Military use
- Royal Australian Air Force
- Royal Air Force