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Parnall Peto

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The Parnall Peto was a small seaplane designed to Air Ministry specification 16/24 in the early 1920s for use as a submarine-carried reconnaissance aircraft.

Two examples were designed and built by George Parnall and Company, one being lost with the submarine HMS M2 when her hangar flooded. It was one of the most challenging projects which the company undertook, because of the very small hangar in which the aircraft had to fit, mounted immediately in front of the submarine's conning tower.

Of mixed wood, fabric, aluminium and steel construction, it had unequal span, Warren-braced folding rectangular wings. The first aircraft, N181, was powered by a 128 hp Bristol Lucifer engine and had mahogany plywood "Consuta" type floats. Performance was generally satisfactory but improvements were made and the machine was rebuilt with new wings, metal floats and a 169 hp Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose engine. Tests both on the sea and in the air showed that designer, Harold Bolas, had met the requirements and it was officially judged to be exceptionally good.

The aircraft was launched using a compressed air catapult mounted on the forward casing of the submarine and recovered using a crane.

With the loss of M2, the Royal Navy abandoned submarine-launched aircraft, although most other navies also experimented with the concept in the interwar years.

The two aircraft built were:

N181 - Which was wrecked at Gibraltar on 11 February 1930 and rebuilt as N255 with improved floats and lost with HMS M2.

N182 - Which crashed 29 June 1930 at Stokes Bay.

File:Parnall-Peto-With-M2.jpg
The submarine HMS M2 launching its Parnall Peto floatplane.

Specifications

Data from [citation needed]

General characteristics

  • Crew: two (pilot and observer)
  • Length: 22 ft 6 in ()
  • Wingspan: 28 ft 5 in ()
  • Height: 8 ft 11 in ()
  • Wing area: 174 ft² ()
  • Empty weight: 1,300 lb ()
  • Loaded weight: 1,950 lb ()
  • Powerplant:Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose IIIC five-cylinder air-cooled radial engine with two bladed wooden propeller, 135 hp ()

Performance


See also

Comparable aircraft

Designation sequence
Parnall Pixie - Parnall Perch - Parnall Peto - Parnall Pike - Parnall Pipit

External links

Template:Parnall aircraft

cs:Parnall Peto it:Parnall Peto

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Parnall Peto".