Supermarine S.6

The Supermarine S.6, later designated the S.6A, was a British single-engined, single-seat racing seaplane of the 1920s, designed by R. J. Mitchell as a larger and more powerful refinement of the S.5. Two aircraft, N247 and N248, were built at Supermarine's Woolston works for the 1929 Schneider Trophy contest, and they were all-metal aircraft with metal-framed wings built using aluminium to save weight. Rolls-Royce produced the R engine for them, and early problems with overhaul times and heat when power was raised to 1,900 horsepower were solved within months. The British team won the 1929 race, with N247 first at 328.63 miles per hour, while N248 set world closed-circuit records for 50 and 100 kilometres. For 1931 the design became the S.6B, and N247 was destroyed in a fatal accident before the contest. The surviving S.6A is displayed at the Solent Sky museum in Southampton.