Short Brothers: Sarafand
Note: This is a sub-section of Short Brothers.
The Short S.14 Sarafand was a British biplane flying boat built by Short Brothers. It was planned as a general reconnaissance aircraft for military service. When it was built in 1932 it was the largest aeroplane that had been built in the United Kingdom. The aircraft was originally designated the Short R6/28 before being named the Sarafand.
The Sarafand was a six-engined biplane flying boat with equal span wings. Due to the high wing end loads, Gouge specified corrugated steel spars for both upper and lower wings. The six engines, in tractor/pusher pairs, were housed in monocoque nacelles mounted between the wings on integral girders; the central nacelle was further supported by two pairs of splayed struts to the lower wing-roots. The hull, largely constructed of anodised Alclad, had a stainless-steel planing bottom. It had a monoplane tail unit with one large fin and two small auxiliary fins on the tailplane.
General characteristics
- Crew: 9 (2 pilots, navigator, radio operator, engineer, four gunners)
- Length: 89 ft 5 in (27.26 m)
- Wingspan: 120 ft 0 in (36.59 m)
- Height: 30 ft 4 in (9.25 m)
- Wing area: 3,460 sq ft (322 m²)
- Empty weight: 44,753 lb (20,342 kg)
- Loaded weight: 70,000 lb (31,820 kg)
- Engines: 6 × Rolls-Royce Buzzard in three tractor/pusher pairs, 825 hp (615 kW) each.