WORTH A DETOUR: Aerial adventures at the Solent Sky Museum

The Solent Sky Museum in Southampton evokes a golden age of air travel, when the flying boats of Imperial Airways took passengers to the far corners of the world.

The luxurious aircraft had reclining seats, sleeping berths and cocktail bars, and one passenger in the 1930s described the travelling experience as being more comfortable than an ocean liner.

Flying boats found favour in the early years of aviation because they could land on lakes and rivers in remote places where there were no runways. Southampton Water became the centre of a network of flying boat routes. Many aircraft manufacturers had set up in the city, and the most famous of these, Supermarine, had a factory a short distance from the museum. The firm’s chief designer, R J Mitchell, designed 26 flying boats.

The museum’s main exhibit, Beachcomber, an S25 Sandringham flying boat, was built by another manufacturer, Short Bros, at Rochester in Kent in 1943. It saw service in Australia and New Zealand, and then found its way back to the UK. Now it sits in the middle of the museum, dominating the space, its wing tips extending almost to the ends of the building. The museum was built in the early 1980s specifically to house this aircraft, and then the other exhibits were assembled around it.

You can climb into Beachcomber’s 44-seat passenger cabin, and then go up a ladder and through a trap door into the cockpit. Here you can sit in the pilot’s seat, which would have been a cold and noisy place when airborne. 

Also on display in the museum is a flying boat that deserves a footnote in the history of the jet age. The SRA 1 is a single-seat fighter flying boat that was built by Saunders-Roe in 1947. It was equipped with two Metropolitan-Vickers Beryl jet engines designed specifically for the aircraft. Beryl was Britain’s first axial-flow jet engine, and the most advanced aeroengine in the world at the time. Donald Campbell’s water speed record attempts in Bluebird from 1955 to 1964 were powered by a Beryl. The SRA 1 was the first British aircraft to be fitted with a Martin-Baker ejection seat, one of which is on show. But the SRA 1 didn’t get past the prototype stage as the Royal Air Force’s interest turned away from flying boats.  

There’s a direct link between flying boats and the Battle of Britain hero the Spitfire. Supermarine’s R J Mitchell had perfected his seaplane designs in the 1920s and 1930s, and several times his craft won the Schneider Trophy, an annual air speed competition. He drew on this experience when he conceived the Spitfire, whose sleek, streamlined features reflected its racing ancestry. Spitfires first flew in 1936 and more than 20,000 were built. 

There’s a replica of the ornate Schneider Trophy on display, along with one of the last Spitfires to be built, a Mk 24, powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon engine. The Spitfire’s appearance changed considerably between the prototype and the Mk 24, as the engines increased in power and the aircraft was given different roles. 

Among the eclectic mix of other aircraft in the museum is a De Havilland Sea Vixen 110, which served with the Royal Navy in the 1960s. The plane is shown as if mounted for take-off from an aircraft carrier, and there’s an explanation of how the steam catapult launch system worked. A nylon net could also be deployed to catch the plane if it had an emergency.

Anyone who has assembled Airfix kits will be interested to see the collection of models representing all 54 types of aircraft once flown by Squadron Leader Norman Rose. His 47-year career with the RAF up to 1989 earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records. 

You can easily spend several hours on an enjoyable visit to the Solent Sky Museum, and the volunteers on duty will be keen to answer any questions.