Saunders-Roe
Saunders-Roe Limited was a British aircraft , boat and body construction company based in East Cowes , Isle of Wight . It became known as a manufacturer of flying boats and hovercraft as well as omnibuses .
history
In the 1870s, Sam Saunders founded the S. E. Saunders boat building company , which was relocated from the Thames to the Isle of Wight in 1901 . In 1909 Saunders began manufacturing aircraft, with mainly flying boats and seaplanes being built. 1928 acquired the founder of Avro , Alliott Verdon Roe and John Lord, the majority in the company and called it in 1929 in Saunders-Roe Ltd. around.
Saunders-Roe, SARO for short, focused on the manufacture of flying boats. 31 of the most successful model, the Saro London , were built. In addition, Saro manufactured the hull of the Blackburn Bluebird . In the Second World War , the final assembly of the Supermarine Walrus and the Supermarine Sea Otter was added. The last executed flying boat design was the Princess from 1952. In 1954 work was carried out on investigations for a nuclear powered flying boat with a takeoff weight of 250 tons. With the experimental aircraft SR.53 from 1957, the production of fixed-wing aircraft ended .
In the late 1940s began in the North Wales factory in Beaumaris on the island of Anglesey , the construction of bodies for buses . After commercial vehicle manufacturer AEC took over competitor Crossley Motors , Saunders Roe was able to take over construction staff from Crossley. Therefore, buses were built more and more.
In 1951, Saunders-Roe acquired the rights to a helicopter design from the English manufacturer Cierva Autogiro , from which the Skeeter was developed. In 1959, Saro introduced the Saunders-Roe Nautical 1 hovercraft , designed for the National Research and Development Corporation .
In the same year, the helicopter and hovercraft division became the property of Westland Aircraft , which developed the Skeeter into the Westland Scout and the Wasp . In 1964 the manufacture of Westland and Vickers hovercraft was combined into the British Hovercraft Corporation . The new company became wholly owned by Westland in 1985, renamed Westland Aerospace and focused on subcontracting for the aircraft industry.
Products
Flying boats
- Kittiwake
- A.3 Valkerie
- A.4 Medina
- A.10
- A.7 Severn
- A.17 Cutty Sark
- A.19 cloud
- A.21 Windhover
- A.27 London
- A.29 Cloud Monospar
- A.33
- A.36 Lerwick
- A.37 Shrimp
- SR.A / 1
- SR.45 Princess
Rocket planes
- SR.53
- SR.177 ( not implemented due to competition from the Lockheed F-104 )
Other planes
helicopter
Hovercraft
Space travel
Boats
Hydrofoils
Speed boats
- "Dark" class of the Royal Navy
Lifeboats
- Lifeboats aboard the Avro 696 Shackleton
Road vehicles
- Bus bodies on bus chassis from Leyland ( Leopard , Tiger Cub , Royal Tiger ), AEC and Daimler (Daimler Freeline)
