Sikorsky S-42

Sikorsky S-42
275px
Type	Flying boat Airliner
Manufacturer	Sikorsky
Designed by	Igor Sikorsky
Maiden flight	30 March 1934
Status	Active
Primary user	Pan American Airways
Number built	10

The American Sikorsky S-42 was the first real transoceanic flying boat.

Design and development

Based on the earlier Sikorsky S-40 that flew in 1931, Igor Sikorsky and Charles Lindbergh, working at the time as a Pan American Airways consultant, laid out plans for a new, larger flying boat. During the S-40's inaugural flight on 19 November 1931, the two visionaries began preliminary sketches on the back of a menu in the S-40's lounge.

Pan Am's president, Juan Trippe, had a similar vision of an aircraft able to span oceans. The new design provided for an increased lifting capacity to carry enough fuel for a 2,500 mile nonstop flight against a 30 mile-an-hour (48 km/h) wind, at a cruising speed far in excess of the average operating speed of any flying boat at that time. Pan Am was also courted by Glenn Martin but Sikorsky's S-42 was delivered first, as the Martin M-130 was still almost a year away from completion.

Operational history

Flying for Pan American Airways, a total of ten S-42s were built, manufactured by the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division of the United Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, Connecticut. The aircraft first flew on 30 March 1934. The S-42 was also known as the Flying Clipper and the Pan Am Clipper.

British Marine Aircraft Ltd. was formed in February 1936 to produce S-42-A flying boats under licence in the United Kingdom but nothing came of this. The company built a factory on the western side of the Hamble peninsula with a slipway to Southampton Water. When the deal fell through the company was sold to H.P. Folland, who renamed it Folland Aircraft Limited.

All Sikorsky S-42s were either scrapped or destroyed in accidents.

Specifications (S-42-A)

General characteristics

• Crew: 4
• Capacity: up to 37 day passengers or 14 sleeper berths
• Length: 68 ft (20.73 m)
• Wingspan: 118 ft 2 in (36.03 m)
• Height: 17 ft 5 in (5.3 m)
• Wing area: 1,329 ft² (123.5 m²)
• Empty weight: 19,764 lb (8,984 kg)
• Loaded weight: 38,000 lb (17,273 kg)
• Powerplant: 4× Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet supercharged radial engine, 660 hp (492 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 188 mph (300 km/h)
• Range: 1,930 miles (3,088 km)
• Service ceiling: 15,704 ft (4,788 m)
• Rate of climb: 1,000 ft/min (305 m/min)
• Wing loading: 28.6 lb/ft² (140 kg/m²)
• Power/mass: 0.07 hp/lb (0.11 kW/kg)

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Fagan, Dave. 'Hamble' Aviation in Hampshire UK 1900 to 2000 Retrieved: 20 May 2005.
• Yenne, Bill. Seaplanes & Flying Boats: A Timeless Collection from Aviation's Golden Age. New York: BCL Press, 2003. ISBN 1-932302-03-4.

External links

• Sikorsky S-42

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Sikorsky S-42

Related development
Sikorsky S-40 Comparable aircraft

• Short Empire
• Boeing 314
• Martin M-130

Designation sequence

• S-39 - S-40 - S-41 - S-42 - S-43 - VS-44 - S-47

See also

• Capt. Edward C. Musick
• Navigator Fred Noonan
• Samoan Clipper

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sikorsky S-42".