Supermarine Air Yacht

Supermarine · United Kingdom · first flew 1930 · transport aircraft

The Supermarine Air Yacht was a British luxury passenger-carrying flying boat designed by R. J. Mitchell. It was the first British flying yacht built to the order of a private owner.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	High-mounted, straight
E — Engines	3 × piston, wing-mounted
F — Fuselage	20.27 m fuselage
T — Tail	Twin fin

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Spot it by:

Rectangular flat-sided parasol wing spanning 92 feet, held high above the hull on struts
Three Armstrong Siddeley Panther radial engines on the wing leading edge
Single braced tailplane carrying three vertical fins and rudders

A monoplane flying boat with a high rectangular wing on sloping V-struts and three engines along its leading edge. It has hull sponsons instead of wing floats and three tail fins.

Specifications

The Supermarine Air Yacht has a length of 20.27 m (67 ft).
It has a wingspan of 28.04 m (92 ft).
Its maximum speed is 164 km/h (102 mph).
Typical crew: 4.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

It was built in Woolston, Southampton in 1929 for the brewing magnate Ernest Guinness, from a 1927 design originally made for a reconnaissance flying-boat specification. It first flew in February 1930 and underwent trials at Felixstowe the following year.

Variants

Only one Air Yacht was built.

Where you'll see it

It was intended to cover 2,000 miles without refuelling at a cruising speed of 100 miles per hour. It resembled the Dornier Do J and was the first of Supermarine's monoplanes to be multi-engined.

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