Saro Windhover

The Saro A.21 Windhover was a British three-engined amphibian flying boat built by Saunders-Roe, originally advertised as the A.19 Thermopylae after the famous clipper ship. It was an enlarged Cutty Sark, designed after tests of adding a third de Havilland Gipsy II engine to the smaller airframe proved impractical because of the extra weight. The Windhover carried a crew of two and four or six passengers and was technically successful and nearly viceless in service, but the type had a very limited market and only two were built. The first, flown at Cowes in October 1930, went to New Zealand and then flew a Bass Strait service from Melbourne to Launceston, while the second was used by Gibraltar Airways, by Mrs Victor Bruce for endurance attempts and then by Jersey Airways until 1938.