• Saunders-Roe Ltd

Samuel Edgar Saunders developed a boat-building business at Goring-on-Thames in the 1870s, although the business would later date its origins to 1830. By 1898 the firm had developed a patented method of lightweight watertight construction, Consuta, composed of mahogany veneers interleaved with waterproofed calico and stitched together with copper wire. S E Saunders Ltd was formed in 1908 and in 1911 the business moved to Cowes, Isle of Wight, and began the construction of aircraft. In 1912 the company designed and built an early amphibious flying boat, the Bat Boat, in association with Thomas Sopwith, and the production of a number of its own amphibian biplanes followed. The company also produced lifeboats for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Control of the company was acquired by Vickers Ltd in 1918 but sold back to S E Saunders Ltd in 1921. The company was refinanced in 1926. In 1929 S E Saunders Ltd was acquired by Alliott Verdon-Roe, formerly of A V Roe & Co, and his business partner John Lord, and the company's name changed to Saunders-Roe Ltd (Saro). Following this change of ownership, the development and production of aircraft increased with the construction of A17 Cutty Sark monoplanes, A19 Cloud flying boats for the Royal Air Force and A27 London reconnaissance aircraft. In 1931 Whitehall Securities Corporation Ltd, investor in Spartan Aircraft Ltd of Southampton, took a substantial holding in Saunders-Roe Ltd and in 1933 the two companies merged. In 1938 the company was reorganised and the shipyard and boat-building business split off as Saunders Shipyard Ltd and the plywood business as Saro Laminated Wood Products Ltd. During the Second World War two factories were opened on Anglesey and the company converted and maintained Catalina flying boats. During these years Saunders-Roe's aircraft building focussed on the manufacture of the Supermarine Walrus and Supermarine Sea Otter. In 1947 the company experimented with jet power with the SRA/1 flying boat fighter, but the project was mothballed in 1950. The company struggled during the early 1950s with the cancellation of the Princess, the first jet flying boat fighter. In 1951 Saunders-Roe took over the helicopter interests of the Cierva Autogiro Co, entering the rotary aircraft business. The Saro Skeeter, Scout and Wasp helicopters entered military service in 1956. The last fixed-wing aircraft produced by Saunders-Roe was the SR53, a mixed-power interceptor, but it was soon abandoned due to the 1957 Defence White Paper which heralded the government's policy largely to abandon piloted aircraft in favour of concentrating on missile development. Saunders-Roe also undertook a number of air-cushion projects during the 1950s and in 1958 the government-backed National Research Development Corporation contracted the company to produce a full-scale hovercraft. In 1959 Saunders-Roe Ltd was acquired by Westland Helicopters Ltd becoming the Saunders-Roe Division of Westland Aircraft Ltd.