SARO P.108 Lifeboat and P.147 Sea Raider concepts ...

[jcf]

Based on the larger drawings I posted, I think the small boats of the P.147 were to be more along the lines of the SARO Sleeping Beauty
'submersible motorised canoe' than a 'cockle kayak'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorised_Submersible_Canoe

[Mossie]

I'd be interested to know the exact nature of what the small boats in those drawings are, they certainly seem to be some kind of development of the Sleeping Beauty.  The book mentions the cockle, I'm guessing that's either Chris Gibson's interpretation or possibly just quoting another possible payload.  There are only small drawings of the P.108 plus a scrap view of the Gannet tug with glider, no images of the P.147.

[jcf]

OK, there is a more complete description of P.147 in From River To Sea that I missed first time round  :
15 troops plus 550lbs suitable equipment or two submersible canoes, their operators and associated explosive charges.
Both craft to have a crew of two.

From pg. 155: "The required water performance was for a return journey of up to 500 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 15 to 18 knots
and a maximum water speed of 30 knots. The Company response was P147, a craft with an all-up-weight of some 7 tons with a wing span
of 77 ft and a hull based on the successful Dark class fast patrol boats of 57 ft. length and a beam of 9.5 ft. Power was to be supplied by two
125 H.P. Rover V6 engines which drove twin water screws. Extensive successful model tests were carried out in the Company's ditching tank.
However the requirement called for a craft capable of both an safe landing and take off. The Company considered that the requirement
for take off meant the design of a full flying boat which was rejected by the customer, who did not proceed with the Company proposal."

Yes, lets glide to the enemy coast, touch down on the surface, drop the flying bits, motor into shore, launch our commando or mini-sub attack,
recover our raiders, motor back to pick up the flying bits we dropped and then wait for a tug to snatch us up into the air. 
What could possibly go wrong?  

[PR19_Kit]

A Rover V6 engine? 

I've never heard of one of them, in the period anyway. Was there any more detail about it?

[jcf]

No more info, but, evidently the V8 derivative of the R-R Meteor, the R-R Meteorite, was also known as the Rover Meteorite,
because Rover manufactured the Meteor and Meteorite. Both petrol and diesel versions for land and sea.

So perhaps the V6 mentioned was a similar development from the Meteor, literally half the V12 Meteor?, a Rover Micro-Meteorite? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Meteorite

http://www.yachtgrot.com/the-rolls-royce-meteor-rover-meteorite-220-bhp-diesel-engine-marine.html

[PR19_Kit]

Not much power for a 1/4 of a Merlin though, even an unblown one. I'll see if I can find more about that on some car sites.

[NARSES2]

Yes, lets glide to the enemy coast, touch down on the surface, drop the flying bits, motor into shore, launch our commando or mini-sub attack,
recover our raiders, motor back to pick up the flying bits we dropped and then wait for a tug to snatch us up into the air. 
What could possibly go wrong?  

Early days of WWII British raiding forces did things just as daft as that just so that we could be seen to be "hitting back" and I'm not being disrespectfull at all. I totally understand why it was required and the guys were volunteers.

[PR19_Kit]

Does it actually say 'V6' or could it be a misprint for 'V8'?

There really was a V8 derived from the unsupercharged V12 Meteor tank engine, which was the 18 litre Meteorite, built by both Rolls Royce and Rover at various times. It produced around 260 bhp on low octane fuel, in which guise it powered the Thorneycoft  Antar tank transporter, which also used a totally different Rolls Royce diesel engine in its later versions.

Talk about a complex gestation! 

[jcf]

Not much power for a 1/4 of a Merlin though, even an unblown one. I'll see if I can find more about that on some car sites.

The Meteor is 600hp, the petrol Meteorite V8 in the Antar tank-transporter 260hp, the diesel marine/stationary Meteorite
in the advert 220hp, so 125 for a V6 development is in line with that trend.  

That'd be 1/2 of a Merlin.  

[PR19_Kit]

I still can't find any other mention of a V6 anywhere. 

I'm surprised they made a decent V8 out of the Meteor, its secondary out of balance forces would have been horrendous, specially with that capacity.

[jcf]

It may have been a matter of getting the engine developed once the project received the go ahead,
rather than using an existing engine.