Saunders Kittiwake

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The Saunders Kittiwake was a British seven-passenger amphibious flying boat built by S. E. Saunders Limited on the Isle of Wight. Only one was made, and it was scrapped in July 1921 after a short period of testing. It was designed to try for the 1920 Air Ministry Commercial Amphibian Competition, but arrived too late to enter.

The aircraft was a wooden biplane powered by two ABC Wasp II radial engines mounted on struts between the upper and lower wings. It carried a crew of two and seven passengers. The fuselage used Saunders’ Consuta method of waterproof plywood jointing with sewn copper wire. The hull had a two-step, shallow V bottom, and the sides were shaped with a tumblehome. On top, there were two levels: a lower cockpit for the crew and, above that, a passenger cabin with windows that could seat seven people. The forward part of the fuselage stayed attached to the hull, while aft of the wings the fuselage and hull were separate, giving the craft a look between a flying boat and a single-float seaplane. The tail sat high above the water.

The tailplane was adjustable, with three wire-braced fins and a central balanced rudder. The Kittiwake was a four-bay biplane with large, straight wings covered in Consuta. The lower wing joined the fuselage at the hull’s top, while the upper wing attached to the cabin. Unusually, the wings had camber-changing devices to widen the speed range, so the ailerons were mounted between the wings on the outer struts.

Two mid-wing, seven-sided engine nacelles housed the ABC Wasp II engines, with their fuel tanks above them on the upper wing. As an amphibian, it had a retractable undercarriage; the two main wheels retracted into boxes in the hull between the steps, operated by a hand crank, leaving a very narrow landing gear track. A water rudder/tailskid was at the rear, and small stabilizing floats were fixed under the lower wing.

The Kittiwake’s first flight, on 19 September 1920 with Norman Macmillan at the controls, ended when it was damaged after a forced water landing caused by the loss of the leading-edge camber gear. It conducted several experimental flights in 1921 before being scrapped in July 1921. It was the first aircraft in a family of Saunders flying boats.