Sloping Off - March 2005
The Centaur Project - Update
by Mike Roach
Members who joined before I did will remember the Warrior Centaur flying boat project: a model of the flying boat was flown by Steve Morris but the story of the test flying was never written up for reasons of commercial confidentiality. However, another club member, John Seaby, video recorded the event and, when James Labouchere came to the club later to give us a talk on the project, we did show the video. The test flight took place in November 1997. James' talk to the club was in early 1999 and it was referred to in the editorial of the March 1999 issue of Sloping Off:
"At the time of writing we have just had the first of two talks which Neil has lined up for us. This one was by James Labouchere of Aeromarine in Lymington. Steve Morris, John Seaby and I got involved some time ago in some test flights of James' one fifth scale model of a revolutionary sea plane design, named Warrior, which James has been working on. John's video footage was edited into a promotional video used to seek sponsorship for the next phase of the project".
Well, the security embargo seems to have been lifted, because "The Engineer" magazine for March (www.theengineer.co.uk) has a 2-page article describing the thinking behind the project. Basically, it uses marine technology and multihull design theory (think of Ellen's B&Q with wings and you are nearly there) to give a long slim hull made from a resin infusion composite rather than aircraft duralumin (which wastes away alarmingly in a salt enviroment). More load can be carried, operating in far worse sea states than conventional bulbous-bowed seaplanes: and its wings fold, allowing entry to very resticted anchorages. It should be in service in mid-2006, apparently.
But. See this plane on the right? It's a Sopwith of course, the Batboat. Saunders of Saunders-Roe built the hull for Tommy Sopwith out of double-diagonal plywood. It's a long, slim hull and but for 90 years of technological progress, looks pretty up-to-date, don't you think? MR
