Saunders-Roe Duchess

The Saunders-Roe Duchess, also known as the P.131, was a British design for a large jet-powered flying boat envisaged by Saunders-Roe at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. It was meant to follow the propeller-driven Princess and drew heavily on its design, but was considerably smaller and to have been powered by fewer engines. The Duchess would have been a high-wing monoplane with a swept wing, wingtip floats and a full-length planing hull, powered by six de Havilland Ghost turbojets mounted in the wing roots. Saunders-Roe projected a speed of up to 500 miles per hour, unheard of for earlier flying boats, and a pressurised cabin for 74 passengers in two compartments either side of a central freight hold. The firm showed a model at the 1950 Farnborough Air Show and promoted the design to airlines and, for reconnaissance and transport, to military customers. No orders came, and it never left the drawing board.