Price: £40.00

Saunders Roe SR53

The Saunders Roe SR53 was designed in response to Specification F.124D for a rocket powered inteceptor. The resulting aircraft designed by Maurice Joseph Brennan was of orthodox construction with both wing and tail of delta planform, with provision for two Firestreak AAM's mounted on the wingtips. Unusually, the SR53 had an Armstrong Siddeley Viper jet engine mounted in the upper fuselage and a De Haviland Spectre variably-throttleable rocket engine using aviation kerosene and hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant mounted in the lower fuselage.

Despite the RAF being uninterested in the SR53 which saw after burning as the way forward for the next generation of fighter planes, the Admiralty displayed interest in the rocket fighter and issued a new specification for a definitive rocket fighter, the SR177, with the SR53 to be built for development flying. The first SR53 was flown from Boscombe Down on 16th of May 1957 by Squadron Leader J. S. Booth, soon demonstrating a remarkable performance, being able to reach 50,000ft in two minutes and Mach 1.33 in level flight. Ultimately a speed of Mach 2.2 was expected. Unfortunately the second SR53 prototype crashed at Boscombe Down on June 5th 1958 killing Squadron Leader Booth.

As a consequence of Duncan Sandys infamous 1957 defence white paper the SR53 and SR177 projects were cancelled and all work ceased in 1958. The first Saunder Roe SR53 prototype still survives at the RAF Museum, Cosford.

Performance

A top speed of Mach 2.2 at 45,000 ft
Weight: 18,400 lb's all up.
Powerplant: One Armstrong Siddely Viper of 1,750 lb thrust, and one 8,000 lb De Haviland Spectre rocket engine.
Armament: Two firestreak AAM's