It's the Supermarine S.6B, the aircraft which finally won the Schneider Trophy for Britain in 1931. Or rather, my just-built model of the S.6B, part of a growing group of Inter-Wars seaplane racers in 1:72 scale. (See my earlier post about building the Curtiss R3C2 of 1925) That picture is a bit fuzzy, sorry, but the plane is small which gives the camera depth-of-field problems. I love the end-on view, giving emphasis to the S.6B's massive floats. As the Schneider Trophy progressed, so did the size of the planes' floats, because of the need to cope with the torque produced by the outrageously powerful engines.
The argument about whether the S.6B specifically helped Britain survive against Nazi Germany and the Axis hinges on the influence it had on the development of designer R.J. Mitchell's next fast plane design, the Supermarine Spitfire. Of course, Britain had other warplanes, notably the Hawker Hurricane during the Battle of Britain, but it's fair to say the Spitfire is a powerful symbol for many people, of Britain's struggle and success in WWII. Personally, I would say the Spitfire's greatest achievement was in the Battle of Malta - if Malta had been lost, one can readily envisage a sudden collapse of Allied positions all around the Mediterranean, and maybe the whole war.
I would put the argument more generally than that. If Britain had given up on the Schneider Trophy, as many said it should, given the extravagance of maintaining the RAF's High Speed Flight against the background of the dire straits the economy was in at the time, we could well have been in a far less ready state at the start of the war. The Schneider Trophy gave the nation a huge boost in morale, and showed we hadn't given up. Because there was a definite race in technology taking place, in Britain, Italy and the US, and Nazi Germany would doubtless have joined in if the contest hadn't ended in 1931. One can only imagine what our available machinery would have looked like in 1939, without the drive for speed here. It wasn't just a matter of Supermarine and Mitchell. Other British companies had taken part, notably Gloster. But maybe it was the engine companies which gained most, Napier and Rolls Royce in particular. The Rolls Royce 'R' in the S.6B produced upwards of 2,000 horse power, albeit for only short periods.
I'll add that the S.6B wasn't the fastest Schneider Trophy plane; that was the amazing Macchi M.C.72 (a model of that will follow some time!). But it wasn't ready in time. Though it did gain a world absolute speed record of 440 mph later. Still dragging its massive floats! Its Fiat engine produced even more power than the Rolls Royce - but only by jamming two 'smaller' engines together.
And what about the model kit, I don't hear you ask? It's yet another kit from near the bottom of my pile of unmade kits. I bought it as an Eastern Express kit, but they were in a chain of labels, increasingly further East in Europe, selling on the moulds, which were originally created by Frog in the UK in the mid-1960s. It shows its age, in limited detail, warped parts, crude finishing and poor fit. It doesn't have many parts and should have been a very quick build, but one wants to make something worth a glance, and the effort to improve things slows it down. Floatplanes... I've decided that setting these planes on their floats is as tense and stressful as putting the top wing on a biplane. Is it really beyond the wit of kitmakers to make this easier? Anyway, there we went, and then had the fun of the paint job. I went to town with masking tape, but the curved surfaces complicated things, and many parts had to be done by hand. I've done better :(
Never mind. I'm liking these racers, they're stars and they seem to know it.
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