MW Miniature Work

Another Schneider Trophy plane; here's when Supermarine , one of the companies building contenders for Britain's entries in the competition, recognised that floatplanes rather than flying boats were the way to go. It was designed by R.J. Mitchell - later the designer of the Spitfire - and was radically different from the flying boat racers which he had produced for previous competitions. One of them, the Supermarine Sea Lion II, had won the 1922 competition at Naples. It was a biplane, and Mitchell improved it with a more powerful engine for the 1923 competition at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. However, that was won by one of the new Curtiss floatplane racers, and Mitchell recognised immediately the need to reduce drag, and in future Schneider competitions sleek floatplanes would dominate. The only thing his new S.4 would share with the earlier Sea Lions was its Napier engine , though of course a much more powerful one. The 1925 competition took place at Baltimore in the USA....