AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 62 / 228

Plate 62 of 228 · Between the wars · Three-engined short-haul airliner

Spartan Cruiser III

Spartan Cruiser III (1935), painted as G-ACYK, the first of the three Spartan Cruiser IIIs, built at East Cowes in 1935, flown by Spartan Air Lines and British Airways and then from Renfrew by Northern & Scottish Airways, which crashed on the Hill of Stake above Largs on 14 January 1938 with both crew surviving, and whose forward fuselage was lifted off the hill by a Royal Navy Sea King in 1973 and is displayed at the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune: Spartan’s eight-passenger three-engined low-wing monoplane airliner of 54 ft span, developed from the Saro-Percival Mailplane, with a redesigned fuselage, a 130 hp de Havilland Gipsy Major in the nose and one on each wing, and trousered main wheels, shown complete, as it flew in 1937–38, standing tail-down on its spatted main wheels and tail wheel: silver overall, a dark blue cheat line from nose to rudder, large dark blue ‘G-ACYK’ on the line on the rear fuselage, small ‘NORTHERN & SCOTTISH AIRWAYS LTD’ titles under the cabin windows, and varnished wooden two-bladed airscrews (shape from an airwar.ru colour profile of G-ACYK scaled to the 12.50 m length, with the wing and tail planform from the NACA Aircraft Circular 168 three-view of the Cruiser II and the details following period photographs of G-ACYK, G-ADEL and G-ADEM).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-ACYK, the first of the three Spartan Cruiser IIIs, built at East Cowes in 1935, flown by Spartan Air Lines and British Airways and then from Renfrew by Northern & Scottish Airways, which crashed on the Hill of Stake above Largs on 14 January 1938 with both crew surviving, and whose forward fuselage was lifted off the hill by a Royal Navy Sea King in 1973 and is displayed at the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune: Spartan’s eight-passenger three-engined low-wing monoplane airliner of 54 ft span, developed from the Saro-Percival Mailplane, with a redesigned fuselage, a 130 hp de Havilland Gipsy Major in the nose and one on each wing, and trousered main wheels, shown complete, as it flew in 1937–38, standing tail-down on its spatted main wheels and tail wheel: silver overall, a dark blue cheat line from nose to rudder, large dark blue ‘G-ACYK’ on the line on the rear fuselage, small ‘NORTHERN & SCOTTISH AIRWAYS LTD’ titles under the cabin windows, and varnished wooden two-bladed airscrews (shape from an airwar.ru colour profile of G-ACYK scaled to the 12.50 m length, with the wing and tail planform from the NACA Aircraft Circular 168 three-view of the Cruiser II and the details following period photographs of G-ACYK, G-ADEL and G-ADEM). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (917 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Spartan Cruiser III (1935) modelled here.

History

The Cruiser III

The Cruiser began as the Saro-Percival Mailplane, a three-engined low-wing monoplane designed by Edgar Percival and built by Saunders-Roe at Cowes in 1931 as a fast mail carrier. It had a wooden wing, a plywood fuselage and three 120 hp Gipsy III engines, one in the nose and one on each wing, so that it could keep flying on any two of them. It first flew early in 1932, and in June that year it flew from Blackpool to Karachi in just under six days. By then the project had passed to Spartan Aircraft, Saunders-Roe’s sister company at East Cowes, and the Mailplane became the starting point for a small airliner.

The Spartan Cruiser I, G-ABTY, first flew in May 1932, flown by Louis Strange. It kept the Mailplane’s three-engined, low-wing layout but had a new all-metal fuselage with a cabin for six passengers and two crew. Twelve Cruiser IIs followed in 1933 and 1934, most with 130 hp Gipsy Majors, and a licence was sold to Yugoslavia, where Zmaj at Zemun built one more. The last three, the Cruiser IIIs of 1935, had a cleaner, redesigned fuselage seating up to eight, a new windscreen and trousered fairings round the main wheels. Production then ended, after 16 had been built at East Cowes.

Spartan formed its own airline, Spartan Air Lines, which opened a service from Heston to Cowes on 12 April 1933, and later flew to the Isle of Wight from Croydon with Railway Air Services and to Blackpool and the Isle of Man with its sister company United Airways. Both became part of British Airways Ltd in 1935, and many of their Cruisers went north to Northern & Scottish Airways, which used them from Renfrew on routes to Campbeltown, Islay and the Isle of Man, and which became part of Scottish Airways in 1937. Abroad, Cruisers flew with Iraq Airwork between Baghdad and Mosul, with Misr Airwork in Egypt, with Aeroput in Yugoslavia, for the Bata shoe company in Czechoslovakia and for the Maharajah of Patiala. In October 1933 the Cruiser II G-ACDW, ‘Faithful City’, was chartered for a return flight from England to Australia, and in 1940 the RAF impressed the few Cruisers left in Britain.

This airframe

Spartan Cruiser III G-ACYK

G-ACYKThe airframe modelled

G-ACYK was the first of the three Cruiser IIIs, built at East Cowes and registered in 1935, and flew first with Spartan Air Lines and then with British Airways Ltd. In 1936 it was sold to Northern & Scottish Airways, which took delivery in June 1937 and flew it from Renfrew. On 14 January 1938, on a cargo flight from Renfrew to Campbeltown carrying film for the town’s cinema, the crew turned back in bad weather and, with a misleading altimeter, flew into the Hill of Stake, high above Largs in Ayrshire; both pilots survived and walked off the hill. The wreck stayed where it fell until 25 July 1973, when a Sea King helicopter from HMS Gannet lifted the forward fuselage off the hill, and it has been on show at the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune, ever since. The museum holds the nose and cabin section only; the model restores the whole aircraft as it flew in Northern & Scottish Airways colours in 1937–38, standing tail-down on its trousered main wheels and tail wheel: silver overall, a dark blue cheat line from nose to rudder, large dark blue ‘G-ACYK’ on the line on the rear fuselage, small ‘NORTHERN & SCOTTISH AIRWAYS LTD’ titles under the cabin windows, and varnished wooden two-bladed airscrews. The shape follows an airwar.ru colour profile of G-ACYK, scaled to the Cruiser III’s length of 12.50 m, with the wing and tail planform taken from the NACA Aircraft Circular 168 three-view of the Cruiser II and the details from period photographs of G-ACYK, G-ADEL and G-ADEM.

See it at National Museum Of Flight

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Cruiser III in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 228 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.