Parnall Prawn

On the departure of Harold Bolas he was succeeded by H.V.Clark who was given the job of designing two experimental types. One of which was the little known about Prawn. The Air Ministry was keen to look into how to make flying boats more efficient. The best way of using a single engine is to mount it in the nose. Doing this with a water borne aeroplane results in problems due to spray. The Prawn had an infeasibly small 4'6" diameter four bladed propeller mounted on a variable mounting attached to the Ricardo-Burt engine. This could be raised during take off and and landing to 22 degrees incline allowing operation without the effects of spray. Unfortunately no records remain on whether these trials were successful. I suspect that in view of the fact that this was probably the only one of its type that things didn't go to plan - now there's a surprise!

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