National Treasures; The Supermarine S.6 Survivors.
My latest walkaround is of the two surviving Supermarine S.6 floatplanes, designed by Reginald Mitchell and his team at the Supermarine works at Woolston in Southampton, UK. These aeroplanes, S.6 N248 and S.6b S1595 competed in two of the three Schneider Trophy races that secured Great Britain's possession of the trophy in perpetuity, with S1595 being the ultimate victor of the seaplace race that greatly furthered aviation technology. In an article in The Aeronautical Journal of March 1968, F. Rodwell Banks, fuel technician went so far as to describe Britain's victory as thus; "Probably the most important series of events in aviation between the wars occurred in 1927, 1929 and 1931 with the Schneider Trophy contests of those years resulting in three consecutive wins by the Royal Air Force High Speed Flight teams and the trophy being won outright by Great Britain. These particular contests were to be significant landmarks, where the importance of the fuel in permitting greatly improved engine performance was fully demonstrated and where subsequent military engine and fuel developments were to go hand in hand." For those interested, Rodwell Banks' fuel mix for Rolls-Royce's 'R' engines comprised 78 percent benzone, 22 percent napthalene based Romainian gasoline with a small lead additive [Supermarine Aircraft since 1914, C.F. Andrews and E.B. Morgan, Putnam, 1981]. The prestige value of Britain winning the trophy outright was enormous also, not to mention the experience that Mitchell and his team gained from their airframes and how they implemented it in the future, particularly since Supermarine were known traditionally as a flying boat and seaplane manufacturer, rather than for designing high performance frontline fighters.
These two airframes are the only complete surviving British Schneider Trophy entrants and therefore can rightly be regarded as national treasures. Disqualified for turning inside a marker on his first circuit, flying during the 1929 event at Venice, Fg Off R.L.R. Atcherley flew S.6 N248 to achieve a world closed circuit speed record over 50 km and 100 km at 332.49 and 331.75mph respectively, during his sixth and seventh laps. The aircraft is preserved at Solent Sky at its birthplace, Southampton. S1595, flown by Sqn Ldr A.H. Orlebar as already stated, won the 1931 event, although by default, as both the challenging French and Italian teams failed to produce an aeroplane at the start line at Calshot. The victorious aeroplane and the massive trophy itself reside at the Science Museum at South Kensington; the former looking weather worn and battered, but still managing to maintain an air of dignity in its darkened surroundings. Click on the image below to go to the Supermarine S.6 pages.
