Saunders A.10

The Saunders A.10 was a private venture single-seat fighter biplane designed by Harry Knowler at S. E. Saunders and noted for carrying four machine guns at a time when two was the usual armament, which earned it the nickname Multi-gun. It was a compact single-bay sesquiplane with a duralumin airframe, mostly fabric covered, powered by a Rolls-Royce F.XI water-cooled inline engine, and it was entered against Air Ministry specification F.20/27. It first flew on 27 January 1929, by which time the company had been taken over by A. V. Roe and partners, so it is also called the Saunders/Saro or Saro A.10. Trials at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment found it longitudinally unstable and awkward on the ground, and after modifications no orders followed. It was then used to explore multi-gun armament until it was struck off charge on 20 November 1933.