AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 40 / 148

Plate 40 of 148 · Between the wars · Coastal reconnaissance flying boat

Supermarine Stranraer

Stranraer, painted as 920, the RAF Museum’s Supermarine Stranraer, built by Canadian Vickers and taken on RCAF strength in November 1940, flown on coastal patrols with No. 5 (BR) Squadron from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, sold in 1944 as the civil CF-BXO and flown by Queen Charlotte Airlines, who replaced its Bristol Pegasus engines with the Wright Cyclone radials it still carries, bought by the museum in 1970 and displayed at Hendon since 1971: the last of R. J. Mitchell’s biplane flying boats, an 85 ft span two-bay biplane with its engines slung under the upper wing, a single-step metal hull, wingtip floats and twin fins and rudders, shown as it is displayed there: bare aluminium hull and floats with silver-doped wings and tail, a type A1 roundel on the rear hull with dark blue ‘QN’ codes and a small ‘920’ on the stern, red, white and blue flashes on both fins, type A roundels and large ‘920’ serials under the lower wings, and three-blade airscrews with yellow tips.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 920, the RAF Museum’s Supermarine Stranraer, built by Canadian Vickers and taken on RCAF strength in November 1940, flown on coastal patrols with No. 5 (BR) Squadron from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, sold in 1944 as the civil CF-BXO and flown by Queen Charlotte Airlines, who replaced its Bristol Pegasus engines with the Wright Cyclone radials it still carries, bought by the museum in 1970 and displayed at Hendon since 1971: the last of R. J. Mitchell’s biplane flying boats, an 85 ft span two-bay biplane with its engines slung under the upper wing, a single-step metal hull, wingtip floats and twin fins and rudders, shown as it is displayed there: bare aluminium hull and floats with silver-doped wings and tail, a type A1 roundel on the rear hull with dark blue ‘QN’ codes and a small ‘920’ on the stern, red, white and blue flashes on both fins, type A roundels and large ‘920’ serials under the lower wings, and three-blade airscrews with yellow tips. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

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

History

The Stranraer

The Stranraer began as Supermarine’s answer to Air Ministry specification R.24/31 for a general-purpose coastal flying boat. The ministry preferred the Saunders-Roe design, so R. J. Mitchell’s team carried on with their own as a private venture, a larger and more powerful development of the Scapa first known as the Southampton V. It was an unequal-span biplane with a single-step metal hull, twin fins and rudders under a high tailplane, wingtip floats on struts and two Bristol Pegasus radials slung beneath the upper wing. Joseph “Mutt” Summers flew the prototype, K3973, on 24 July 1934, and in August 1935 the Air Ministry ordered 17 for the RAF, serialled K7287 to K7303.

The first Stranraers reached No. 228 Squadron in April 1937, and Nos. 209 and 240 Squadrons followed. Their crews flew coastal and anti-submarine patrols with three Lewis guns in open positions in the bow, amidships and tail, and up to 1,000 lb of bombs or depth charges under the lower wings. The RAF’s Stranraers were outdated by the outbreak of war; they flew patrols over the North Sea and the Western Approaches until March 1941 and were then used for training, the last flight being made at Felixstowe in October 1942.

Canada made far more use of the type. Canadian Vickers built 40 under licence in Montreal for the Royal Canadian Air Force, which flew them on anti-submarine and coastal patrols from both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts; on 10 June 1940 a No. 5 Squadron crew under Flight Lieutenant Leonard Birchall forced the Italian merchant ship Capo Nola to run aground. The last RCAF Stranraer was retired in January 1946. Surplus aircraft were sold to civil operators, and Queen Charlotte Airlines flew them, some re-engined with Wright Cyclones as “Super Stranraers”, along the coast of British Columbia until 1958. Only one survives complete.

This airframe

Stranraer 920 (CF-BXO)

920The airframe modelled

920 was built by Canadian Vickers and taken on RCAF strength on 28 November 1940. It flew with No. 5 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Squadron from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, coded QN, then with No. 13 Operational Training Squadron at Patricia Bay and the bomber reconnaissance squadrons on the west coast. In 1944 it was sold as CF-BXO, the first Stranraer converted for civil use, and flew for Canadian Pacific Air Lines and then, from 1947, for Queen Charlotte Airlines, which replaced its Pegasus engines with Wright Cyclones in 1950. It last flew on 13 August 1966. The RAF Museum bought it in 1970, brought it to Britain aboard two RAF Belfasts, restored it at Henlow and has displayed it at Hendon since 1971. The model shows it as it is displayed there, still with its Cyclones and three-blade airscrews: bare aluminium hull and floats with silver-doped wings and tail, a yellow-ringed roundel on the rear hull with the codes “QN” in dark blue and a small “920” on the stern, red, white and blue flashes on both fins, and roundels and large “920” serials under the lower wings. No photograph looks down on the upper wing, so it is left plain, and the model rests level on its keel without the museum’s trestles and beaching trolleys.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum London

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

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

Every airframe and serial All 148 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.