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Saunders-roe Princess | bgcolor="#87CEEB" colspan="3" align="center" style="border-bottom:3px solid"|Saunders-Roe Princess | olspan="3" align="center"|
Saunders-Roe Princess G-ALUN (Saunders-Roe publicity picture) | | gcolor="#87CEEB" colspan="3"|Description | | ole | colspan="2"|Long range passenger flying boat | | rew | colspan="2"| | | irst Flight | colspan="2"|1952 | | anufacturer | colspan="2"|Saunders-Roe | | gcolor="#87CEEB" colspan="3"|Dimensions | | ength | 148 ft 0 in | 42.1 m | | ingspan | 219 ft 6 in | 66.9 m | | eight | 15 ft 3 in | 17 m | | ing area | ft² | m² | | gcolor="#87CEEB" colspan="3"|Weights | | mpty | lb | kg | | oaded | lb | kg | | aximum takeoff | 345025 lb | 156500 kg | | apacity | colspan="2"|105 passengers | | gcolor="#87CEEB" colspan="3"|Powerplant | | ngines | colspan="2"|10 × Bristol Proteus turboprop | | ower | 3200 hp | 2386 kW | | gcolor="#87CEEB" colspan="3"|Performance | | aximum speed | 360 mph | 579 km/h | | ombat range | miles | km | | erry range | miles | km | | ervice ceiling | ft | m | | ate of climb | ft/min | m/min | | ing loading | lb/ft² | kg/m² | | hrust/Weight | colspan="2"| | | ower/Mass | hp/lb | kW/kg | | gcolor="#87CEEB" colspan="3"|Avionics | | vionics | colspan="2"| | The Saunders-Roe Princess was a very large flying boat aircraft built in the United Kingdom by Saunders-Roe, based in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. At the time, the Saunders-Roe Princess was one of the largest aircraft in existence; unfortunately, by the 1950s, the concept of a passenger carrying flying boat was dead. Better runways and airports meant that future long-range airliners would be land-based aircraft, without the weight and drag of a boat hull. The Princess was powered by ten Bristol Proteus turboprop engines, powering six propellers. The four inner propellers were double, contra-rotating propellers driven by a twin version of the Proteus, the Bristol Coupled Proteus; each engine drove one of the propellers. The two outer propellers were single and powered by single engines. The rounded, bulbous, 'double-bubble' fuselage contained two passenger decks, with room for 105 passengers in great comfort. The prototype, G-ALUN, first flew on August 22, 1952. It was the only one to fly. Two others (G-ALUO & G-ALUP) were built, but they never flew. After spending a number of years in mothballs awaiting possible future use, two of them at Calshot Spit, all were broken up in the 1960s. They were the last fixed-wing commercial aircraft produced by Saunders-Roe. The company built one more fixed-wing design, the Saunders-Roe SR.53 rocket-assisted experimental fighter; aside from that, the company concentrated on helicopters and hovercraft after this point.
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