Supermarine Walrus

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Supermarine Walrus

Type	amphibious aircraft
Manufacturer	Supermarine
Designed by	R. J. Mitchell
Introduced	1935
Primary users	Fleet Air Arm Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Canadian Navy
Number built	740 between 1936 and 1944
Variants	Supermarine Seagull

The Supermarine Walrus was a reconnaissance amphibian designed by R. J. Mitchell and operated by the Fleet Air Arm. It also served with the Royal Air Force, RAAF, RNZN, RCAF, and RNZAF. The Walrus was initially developed for service from cruisers at the request of Australia, and at first was called the Seagull Mk V - although there was little resemblance to the earlier Seagull, it was hoped to capitalise on that amphibian's successful exports to Japan, Spain, etc. It was delivered for service from cruisers from 1935.

It was designed to be launched from ship-borne catapults, and was the first amphibious aircraft in the world to be launched by catapult with a full military load. The wings could be folded on ship, giving a storage width of 17 ft 11 in (5.5 m). 740 Walrus were built in two major variants, the Walrus Mark I being metal hulled, the Walrus Mark II wooden.

The first Walrus were delivered in 1935. The first Walrus to be deployed was with the New Zealand division of the Royal Navy, on HMS Achilles (later a victor of the Battle of the River Plate). By the start of the war the Walrus was in widespread use, and they saw service in home waters, the Mediterranean and the Far East. Walrus are credited with sinking or damaging at least 5 enemy submarines. Some of them were still in service in 1947.

As the Walrus was stressed to a level suitable for catapult-launching, rather surprisingly for such an ungainly-looking machine, it could be looped and bunted, whereupon any water in the bilges would make its presence felt. This usually discouraged the pilot from any future aerobatics on this type.

The Walrus was affectionately known as the 'Shagbat' or sometimes 'Steam-pigeon', the latter name coming from the steam produced by water falling on the hot Pegasus engine.

One of its more unusual characteristics was that the control column was not a fixed fitting in the usual way, but could be unplugged from a socket at floor level, there being two sockets. It became a habit for only one column to be in use and when control was passed from the pilot to co-pilot or vice-versa for the control column to be unplugged and handed over.

RAF use in home waters was mainly in the air-sea rescue role.