NEW BRITISH FIGHTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26349, 2 January 1947, Page 3

NEW BRITISH FIGHTER

JET-ENGINED FLYING BOAT Special to the Daily Times LONDON, Dec. 11. A new type of fighter aircraft —a jetpropelled flying boat, which is expected to prove particularly suited to the Pacific theatre—is to make its first flight next month. It is the Saunders-Roe SR/Al, powered by a twin-unit Metropolitan-Vickers F2/4 jet engine. Before the advent of the jet engine the problem of obtaining fighter performance in a flying boat was difficult. In order to provide sufficient water clearance for the propellers it was necessary to use shaft drives, which introduced mechanical complications. In the new Saunders-Roe machine this difficulty has disappeared and all modern fighter requirements are adequately met. To preserve the high-speed characteristics of the wings, the power units and armaments have been placed within the hull. Two units mounted side by side give approximately the same width .of hull as that demanded by hydro-dynamic considerations, and the actual form drag of the - engine installation has therefore been eliminated. . , The pilot in the new fighter is located in a pressure-cabin forward of the high wing, provided with an emergencv ejection device. The machine has a single fin and rudder, and the wing floats are retractable in flight. Armament consists of four 20mm. cannon in the nose of the hull. War experiences in the Pacific zone confirmed the view that the. land-based fighter could fulfil its operational role successfully only when the landingstrip and base facilities had been built and the means to defend them established. The‘new jet fighter flying boat, on the other hand, is independent of fixed bases, needing only a sheltered strip of water to take-off or land. It thus renders unnecessary any great mass of airfield construction equipment, and can be put into action much more rapidly.