Short Seamew

what is it?

The Short SB.6 Seamew was a British aircraft designed in 1951 by David Keith-Lucas of Shorts as a lightweight anti-submarine platform to replace the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA)'s Grumman Avenger AS 4 with the Reserve branch of the service. It first flew on 23 August 1953, but, due to poor performance coupled with shifting defence doctrine, it never reached service and only 24 production aircraft had flown before the project was cancelled.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 turboprop · mid wing · fixed tailwheel (taildragger) · 16.8 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 380 km/htop speed
• size 6,804 kgmax take-off weight
• built 26made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 73 years ago, in 1953.
• 🏎️Top speed is 2.9× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 16.8 m: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.

turboprop: A jet-style turbine turning a propeller: efficient on short hops.

spec sheet

first flight

1953-08-23

introduced

1953

retired

1957

status

retired

number built

26

role

anti-submarine aircraft

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Short Brothers

engines

1× Armstrong Siddeley Mamba

length

12.5 m

wingspan

16.8 m

height

4.1 m

max take-off weight

6,804 kg

top speed

380 km/h

range

—

wings

mid wing

landing gear

fixed conventional landing gear

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.