The Short S.17 Kent was a British four-engined 15-seat biplane luxury

flying boat A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though ...

airliner, designed and built by

Shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ar ...

to meet a requirement from

Imperial Airways Imperial Airways was an early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passengers ...

for an aircraft with greater range than the

Short Calcutta The Short Calcutta or S.8 was a civilian biplane airliner An airliner is a type of airplane for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. The modern and most common variant of the airliner ...

. The new aircraft was to have sufficient range to fly the stage from Mirabella,

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, to

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

without the need for refuelling stops in Italian colonial territory due to a political row which had led the Italian Government to ban British aircraft from its ports. Three aircraft were built, each receiving its own name: ''Scipio'', ''Sylvanus'' and ''Satyrus''; they were referred to collectively within Imperial Airlines as the Scipio Class flying boats. Each had an aircrew of three (two pilots and a radio operator/navigator) and a steward to prepare meals and light refreshments for the passengers.

Design and development

The Short Kent

was essentially an enlarged, four-engined version of the

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

, with the same passenger carrying capacity but with an increased payload for mail and fuel. It was powered by four

Bristol Jupiter The Bristol Jupiter is a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine that was built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developme ...

XFBM

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...

s mounted on vertical struts between the upper and lower planes. The wings were constructed using corrugated

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age hardening, age-hardenable aluminium–copper alloys. The term is a combination of ''Düren'' and ''aluminium'' ...

box spars and tubular rib assemblies, with a fabric covering and

Frise aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in Flight dynamics, roll (or ...

s on the upper and lower wings. Duralumin walkways were provided to allow ready access to the engines for maintenance purposes. The tail unit consisted of braced monoplane horizontal and

vertical stabilizer A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft. The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, sta ...

s; the tailplane was fitted with Flettner-type

servo tab A servo tab is a small hinged device installed on an aircraft control surface to assist the movement of the Flight control surfaces, control surfaces. Introduced by the German firm Flettner, servo tabs were formerly known as Flettner tabs. Ser ...

s for trimming on the

Short Scylla The Short L.17 Scylla was a British four-engined 39-seat biplane airliner designed and built by Short Brothers at the request of Imperial Airways to supplement the Handley Page H.P.42 fleet already in service after Handley Page quoted an excessi ...

which had the same wings and tail as the Kent. The

anodised Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. The process is called ''anodizing'' because the part to be treated forms the anode electrode of an electr ...

duralumin fuselage was mounted below the lower wing, with the planing bottom of the hull made of

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

(as on the Singapore II) with a transverse main step. The use of stainless steel reduced the frequency of land inspections of the hull. The bimetallic corrosion problems experienced on the Singapore II hull had been solved; Short Brothers became the first company to master the technique of building seaplane floats and flying boat hulls in this combination of metals. A quick-release hook (controlled by the pilots) was provided, which enabled the captain to start, warm up and (when required) run all four engines up to full power for takeoff while the aircraft was still attached to the mooring buoy. Maximum comfort was required for passengers and crew: the Kent's passenger cabin was 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) wide and 14 ft (4.27 m) long. The seating was arranged in four rows of facing pairs, with a centre aisle, Pullman-style. The steward's

pantry A pantry is a room or cupboard where beverages, food, (sometimes) dishes, household cleaning products, linens or provisions are stored within a home or office. Food and beverage pantries serve in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen. Etymol ...

, situated on the port side aft of the passenger cabin, was equipped with twin-burner oil stoves on which stewards (and the

valet A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, ''valet de chambre'' was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "va ...

s of valued passengers) could cook meals in flight. The toilet and washroom were opposite the pantry; the mail and freight compartment was further aft. Special attention was paid to sound levels in the passenger cabin and crew's stations; accordingly the engines were fitted with exhaust collector rings and long tailpipes, to reduce exhaust noise inside the hull. The cockpit, for two pilots, was fully enclosed (unlike that of the Calcutta's) with a separate Radio Officer's station directly aft of the cockpit.

Service history

In October 1930, Short Brothers started building the first of the three S.17 Kent flying boats (G-ABFA, named ''Scipio''). It was launched and flown on 24 February 1931 by Shorts' Chief

Test Pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

J. Lankester Parker and was in service in the Mediterranean in May of that year. The second (G-ABFB, named ''Sylvanus'') was launched on 31 March 1931; the third Kent (G-ABFC, ''Satyrus'') was launched on 30 April 1931 and flown for the first time on 2 May 1931.Barnes 1967, p. 270. Imperial Airways used the Kent aircraft on the Mediterranean stages of its routes to India and beyond, also using them to survey planned routes to South Africa and Australia. On 22 August 1936 "Scipio", on its way back from India, flipped over and sank in " Mirabella Harbour" (between the mainland of Crete and the island of Spinalonga) after landing heavily, killing two passengers. ''Sylvanus'' was destroyed by fire at

Brindisi Brindisi ( ; ) is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an essential role in trade and culture due to its strategic position ...

on 9 November 1935. Only ''Satyrus'' survived to be taken out of service and scrapped in June 1938.Barnes and James, p.272. In 1933 Imperial Airways placed an order for two landplanes based on the Kent; known initially as the S.17/L and later as the L.17, these became the

, of which two were built and given the names "

Scylla In Greek mythology, Scylla ( ; , ) is a legendary, man-eating monster that lives on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart, the sea-swallowing monster Charybdis. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's range o ...

" and "

Syrinx In classical Greek mythology, Syrinx () was an Arcadian nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. Being pursued by Pan, she fled into the river Ladon, and at her own request was metamorphosed into a reed from which Pan then mad ...

Operators

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Specifications

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * * * * * *

External links

British Movietone News film footage of the Kent
{{Short Brothers aircraft 1930s British airliners Flying boats

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...