Saunders-Roe Cloud

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Saro Cloud
A Saro Cloud from the RAF
Type: Amphibious flying boat
Design country:

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Manufacturer:

Saunders-Roe

First flight:

1930

Production time:

1933–1935 (A.29)

Number of pieces:

21st

The Saunders-Roe Cloud (short: Saro Cloud) was a British amphibians - flying boat of the 1930s.

Development and use

The Saro Cloud appeared in 1930 as an enlarged further development of the passenger flying boat Saro Cutty Sark from 1929. Four copies of the civil version A.19 were built and equipped with different engines. One cloud was sold to the ČSR. The first prototype ( G-ABCJ ), which initially went to Canada, was bought back by Saro three years later and equipped with other wings for tests in 1938. In 1931 the Saro Windhover appeared as a successor , but only as a prototype.

A prototype was tested for the Royal Air Force , which then ordered sixteen A.29 machines for the training of pilots and navigators, which were delivered from August 1933 to June 1935. They were flown until 1936 with the Seaplane Training Squadron in Calshot and until the end of the 1930s with the School of Air Pilotage in Andover and the No. 48 Squadron.

Although they were completely out of date at the time, some Clouds were used for training purposes as well as for coastal surveillance and as anti -submarine aircraft until June 1940 . To do this, the cloud could carry four 22.5 kg bombs or two to four 45 kg depth charges under the wings. Used as a liaison aircraft, the cloud could transport six to eight passengers.

Tactical-technical data

A Saunders-Roe Cloud
Parameter Data
crew 4–5 or 2 + 8 students
span 19.50 m
length 15.20 m
height 5.00 m
Wing area 60.40 m
Empty mass 2750 kg
Takeoff mass normal 4350 kg
maximum 4500 kg
Engine two 10-cylinder double radial engines Armstrong Siddeley Serval
power 250.07 kW (340 PS) each
Top speed 190 km / h at 1900 m altitude
Cruising speed 150 km / h at 1900 m altitude
Rate of climb 220 m / min
Summit height practically 4270 m
Range 900 km
Radius of action 350 km
Flight duration 6 h at 150 km / h
Armament One movable machine gun each in the bow of the trunk and on the back of the trunk
Drop ammunition
( anti- submarine version)
four 22.5 kg bombs or
two to four 45 kg depth charges under the wings

See also

literature

  • Peter Alles-Fernandez (Ed.): Aircraft from A to Z. Volume 3 . Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1989, ISBN 3-7637-5906-9 .
  • Susan Harris (Red.): Encyclopedia of Airplanes . Weltbild, Augsburg 1992, ISBN 3-89350-055-3 .
  • Ulrich Israel: Flying Boats of the Second World War . German Military Publishing House, Berlin 1972, p. 84/85 .
  • A. Lumsden & T. Heffernan: Per mar probare (Part 8) - Saro Cloud and Windhover . Airplane Monthly, November 1987.

Web links

Commons : Saunders-Roe Cloud  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Israel: Flying Boats of the Second World War. In: Wolfgang Sellenthin (Ed.) German Fliegerkalender 1969 , Deutscher Militärverlag, Berlin 1968, p. 188