Saunders Kittiwake

The Saunders Kittiwake was a British amphibian flying boat built by S. E. Saunders at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. It was designed for the 1920 Air Ministry Commercial Amphibian Competition, although it was too late to enter. It was a wooden amphibian biplane powered by two ABC Wasp II radial engines mounted between the wings, with a crew of two and room for seven passengers. Its hull and fuselage used Saunders' patent Consuta method of jointing plywood panels with sewn copper wire, and it had camber-changing devices on its wings and a retractable undercarriage, unusual for the time. The only Kittiwake, G-EAUD, first flew briefly on 19 September 1920 with Norman Macmillan, was damaged in a forced water landing and was scrapped in July 1921. It was the first of a family of Saunders and Saunders-Roe flying boats.