handley saunders page poseidon

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this is for the whif gb on mmm (also an odd easter challenge too)

after the succesfull entry into service of the handley page victor in 1952 the company collaborated with saunders to put forward an asw flying boat version for maritime recon and anti submarine work.
this was very important as the new type xxi boats fielded by germany was much harder to find than the older type vii.

several major alterations were needed to the victor so much in fact that it was felt a name change was in order.

apart from the hull shape to the fuselage and outriggers the bomb bay needed carefull consideration because it was very difficult to make a conventional bombay water tight.

a unique and frankly odd arrangement was adopted the bombs/depth charges were ejected rearwards out the back of the fuselage by way of a large compressed spring inside the belly of the aircraft (it was much like the method used to inject the ball into a pinball machine).

the tactic involved skipping the waves at very low speed using 3 extendable sonar aerials (nicknamed paperclips due to their shape) the targets location was pinpointed then a bomp or depth charge was loaded into the chamber and fired as the aircraft passed above the submarine.
the spring effectively made the depth charge stationary as the plane carried on its merry way this made delivary MUCH more accurate than conventional bombing

they also decided to add 2 more engines to the airframe this extra power more than countered the extra drag created by the modifications this also increased the top speed to mach 1.2

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the victor is such a mean looking plane anyway and opening up the intakes and adding more engines makes it positively evil looking