Schneider Trophy 1931. An historically important group of three 78 rpm recordings by the three most important men involved in the 1931 Schneider Trophy Contest which Great Britain won outright, retaining the Trophy in perpetuity having won the race three times consecutively (1927, 1929 & 1931), viz. R.J. Mitchell, aircraft designer, A.J. Rowledge, Rolls-Royce engine designer, and Flight Lieutenant J.N. Boothman, pilot. Recorded on HMV 12 inch yellow label “Private Record” discs, but never issued commercially, the British Library Sound Archive is believed to hold copies, probably given to them for posterity by R.J. Mitchell’s son, Dr. Gordon Mitchell. Each recording is introduced by a professional narrator in typical period “BBC” style, and lasts just over four minutes. A set of CD recordings is being sold with this lot.. R.J. Mitchell (part transcription). “... in a very few words I will endeavour to describe one or two of the interesting features of the S6B and also some of the problems of the designer. In the design of a seaplane of this type, the one outstanding and all important requirement is speed, every feature has to be sacrificed to this demand. The result of this is that every part of the aircraft just, and only just, fulfils its requirements... It is not good enough to follow conventional methods of design, it is essential to break new ground and to invent and involve new methods and new ideas... The floats are made so small for the load they have to carry that their reserve buoyancy is less than 40%. The usual reserve buoyancy for seaplane floats is about 100%. The cooling of the engine presents many interesting features. The usual methods employed either by air cooling or by means of honeycomb radiators have very high air resistance, on the S6B the engine is cooled without adding any air resistance. The cooling water is circulated over both surfaces of the wings and most of the surface of the floats, the covering being of a special double-skin construction. Similarly, the oil is circulated along the sides of the body and over the surface of the fin. During flight heat equivalent to 1000 horsepower is being given to the air from these surfaces. The S6B has been aptly described as a flying radiator... I must express the very greatest admiration for the pilots of the High Speed Flight of the Royal Air Force who carried out trials and operated these machines. Their job required great courage and great skill and they played a very important part in developing the machines to their final state. The question is often asked, will higher speeds be attained in the future, I feel quite sure they will. The problems of still higher speeds are no more intense at this stage than they have been at any period in the past. For the present, however, it is generally considered that high speed development has served its purpose. It has accumulated an enormous amount of information which is now being used to improve the breed of everyday aircraft. It is helping to develop our great airlines and ocean-going flying boats and is thus bringing closer together the outlying parts of the British Empire. This indeed is an objective worthy of all our greatest efforts”. A.J. Rowledge (part transcription). “It was not until Lady Houston so generously came forward with her offer to defray the cost of the machines that the decision was made for Great Britain to take part in the 1931 Schneider Trophy contest. This indecision might easily have been fatal to our chances as very little time, only seven months was left for the development of the design to the new standard and the construction of the actual racing engines In preparing the engines for the 1929 contest we were in many ways at the beginning of a development of this particular engine. In 1931 we had more knowledge and data to enable us to tackle the job but at the same time we had a smaller field for development. The 1931 engine, besides giving more power was a more efficient engine than its predecessor... almost every piece of material in the engine is working at its limit of stress or heat capacity, even for the short life required for such an engine We think it will be agreed by most people who saw the engines perform that they did their work in quite a gentlemanly fashion, and that besides giving good power, they were docile and ran smoothly.Looking at the engine, it is perhaps difficult to believe that the engine fitted to it can possibly give more power than a railway engine which has such an imposing size and weighs so many tonnes In conclusion the satisfactory result was due to team work, and in addition to the people already mentioned, a word of praise is due to the suppliers of the materials and the work people”. Arthur Rowledge (1876-1945) joined Napier & Son in 1913 as Chief Designer. After designing car engines and, more notably, the Napier Lion aero engine, Rowledge took up a similar position at Rolls-Royce Limited in 1921, where he became known as “Rg” in company shorthand. He is credited with designing the Condor III, Kestrel and the Rolls-Royce R racing engine, that was used with great success at the 1929 and 1931 Schneider Trophy races. Development work on the Merlin engine was one of his last contributions to aero engine design along with responsibility for the Exe and Pennine projects, before retiring from Rolls-Royce in 1945 at the age of 70. J.N. Boothman (full transcription). “It is rather difficult to record impressions after an event such as the Schneider Trophy Contest because, at the time, one is concentrating so utterly on the job in hand that the prospect of having to make a record later does not enter one’s head. For the contest last year, the former navigability test had been abolished and replaced by a take off, a climb to 50 metres and an alighting, following which the machine had to taxi for about 2 minutes before taking off to cross the starting line of the speed test proper. These new conditions meant a take off at full load, always an extreme test of a racing seaplane, followed by an alighting and a take off at practically full load. On September 13th 1931, the day when the contest was flown, the weather conditions were fairly good, the sea being rather rough but improving rapidly. After a preliminary flight, to test the conditions, I took my seat in the Vickers Supermarine Rolls-Royce S6B and was slipped from the pontoon as the starting gun was fired at 2 minutes past one. The first take off was effected in 40 seconds, the machine making no difficulty about lifting her 6000 pound weight despite the enormous loading of nearly 42 pounds per square foot of wing surface. As soon as we were off the water, the engine with throttle down to half speed in order to conserve fuel, and a left hand circuit made. Over Cowes, the throttle was shut and an alighting made close to the take off position. In spite of the heavy load and the high landing speed of about 110 mph or more, the floats took the rough-ish water beautifully. After taxiing, throttle right down for the specified time, the second take off was started. This one was not so pleasant, the floats running into the wash left from my first effort, the machine receiving rather a hammering from the rough water. Forty seconds saw us in the air again and after a right hand turn, the nose was pointing at Ryde Pier, the starting line of the speed course. This course consists of seven triangular laps of just over 31 miles each. With the throttle wide open we passed over the pier towards the destroyer marking the southern turn near Bembridge in the Isle of Wight, then a gentle left hand turn around the pylon and across the eight miles of open sea to Wittering. The sea here was bad, a heavy swell rolling in from the Channel making any hopes of a successful forced alighting rather small. However the clock-like running of the engine and the perfect way th
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