Supermarine S5..................... 0595

S5 new model 2 S5 new model 3

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Supermarine S5 1927 Schneider Trophy winner N 220. I

Newly released and improved kit (March2000)

Contains 2silver Astrolux, 1 blue Alstrolux 1Ivorex card, balsa sandwich board, includes resin-cast nose and cockpit and float front sections, prop and spinner, wire parts, rigging jig. Decals supplied for N220

S5 new model resin casts

AIRCRAFT HISTORY

When Reginald Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire fighter of World War II, designed his first cantilever high speed monoplane, the revolutionary Supermarine S4 seaplane, to compete in the 1925 Schneider Trophy Race held in Baltimore USA, he used the tried and tested W configuration (three banks of four cylinders) Napier Lion engine that had been developed for the RAF towards the end of WWI. The engine was extremely short and with exceptional power/weight ratio. The S4, piloted by Hubert Broad, crashed at Baltimore during testing, with the pilot making a miraculous escape from underwater after uncontrollable aileron flutter and oscillations of the unbraced cantilever wing. However, despite its age and lower power than was available from contemporary Italian and American engines, Mitchell was convinced that the Lion could be developed to produce sufficient power to allow a modified design, known as the S5, to be competitive for the 1926 race. However, the aeroplane was not ready for that race, which was won by an Italian Macchi M-39, but three S5's were built and tested ready for the 1927 race, hosted by Italy at Venice Lido.

The RAF high speed team entered two of these, N 219 and N 220, for the race, which was eventually won by N 220, piloted by Flt.Lt.S.N.Webster at a speed of 281.54 mph for the seven lap 50km course, with N 219 flown into second place by Flt.Lt. O.E.Worsley, at a speed of 272.96mph.

The British victory at Venice began the run of three consecutive victories in Schneider Trophy races that was eventually to bring the Trophy to Britain in perpetuity in 1931, with a Rolls-Royce powered development of the S5, the S6B, winning the race that year at Calshott. Significantly, in comparison with the S5's performance three years earlier, the S6B won at a little more than 50 mph faster than the S5, but used almost three times the power from its specially tuned Rolls Royce R racing engine. Indeed, the S5 is still the fastest piston-engined aeroplane ever made to utilise such low power as its Lion VIIB could muster. This is testimony to the triumph of the original design of the Lion. When first produced in 1919/20, the Lion engine was rated at less than 300 hp. The excellence of the original design allowed the special racing version used in the S5 to output nearly three times the designed output, and a later supercharged version of the engine was persuaded to produce over 1,100 hp, all from the same swept capacity of the original engine.

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38 cms Wingspan ....................................... $50.00 (£24.95)

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