Short Crusader
| Short Crusader | |
|---|---|
| Role | Racing seaplane |
| National origin | UK |
| Manufacturer | Short Brothers |
| Designer | W A Bristow |
| First flight | 4 May 1927 |
| Primary user | Royal Air Force, High Speed Flight |
| Number built | 1 |
The Short Crusader also called the Short-Bristow Crusader and Short-Bristol Crusader was a British racing seaplane of the 1920s, built by Short Brothers to compete in the 1927 Schneider Trophy race.
Although inline engines had a clear advantage for high-speed aircraft due to the smaller frontal area, Roy Fedden, the engineer in charge of aero-engine development at Bristol Aircraft, was unwilling to let the initiative in engine development pass to Rolls-Royce and Napier, and managed to obtain a contract for an uprated version of the Mercury nine-cylinder radial engine. The early production versions of this engine produced 420 hp (310 kW), but the uprated engine produced 960 hp (720 kW) in bench-testing, although for flight purposes it was limited to an output of 810 hp (600 kW) The project for a racing aircraft using this engine was entrusted to Lieut.-Col. W. A. Bristow, a consultant aero-engineer, and W.G. Carter. Submitted to the Air Ministry in early 1926, the design was accepted and a contract for one prototype was awarded. Since it became apparent that the resources of a large aircraft manufacturer would be necessary, detail design and manufacture was assigned to Shorts, who had already been made responsible for the design and manufacture of the floats.
The aircraft was a low-wing monoplane of mainly wooden construction. The wire-braced wings were of an unusual elliptical layout, with the maximum chord and thickness at mid-span on each side, tapering in towards the root. The two box-spars and the spruce ribs were of spruce, covered with thin mahogany sheet overlaid with silk. The rear of the elliptical section fuselage was also wooden, being a monocoque construction with two layers of mahogany veneer applied over a frame of spruce formers and stringers. The forward section was built from steel tubing, covered with duralumin panels. The exposed cylinders were covered by streamlined helmets to minimise drag while admitting enough air to cool the engine, the helmet of the uppermost cylinder being continued back as a fairing which incorporated the windscreen and pilot's headrest. The twin floats, made of duralumin, were each carried on a pair of streamline section raked struts, braced by wires.
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