Why Walrus?

Nup, Westland Walrus was already there in 1925… maybe Walrus was code for something big, fat and ugly, with apologies to all Walri and Walrus lovers out there.

Ooh. that’s from the AP, You don’t happen to have the same for the Wallace do you? Or anyone?

John

Every landing,however good,sounded like a tin bath falling down the stairs 🙂

Just had a good chuckle at that, bazv, at the expense of one of my favourite aircraft. Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsBGPjc8DFE

I see the naughty Mr Wilson was led below for some counselling RN style. 😀

Just a normal day in film making ; )

Don’t you love that plane that is catapulted into the skies as a Walrus, and comes down a Sea Otter:)

Some more nice Walrus footage here inc some off the south coast…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-2UAXblTUE

Hey my last glider was nicknamed ‘Cuddles’…and very nice to fly as long as you did not have to rig her (ooh me achin back ; ))

Anyway fill yer boots with this lovely RN film …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsBGPjc8DFE

I think most of us have a soft spot for the Walrus : )

Then how about calling it the Supermarine Cuddles – that would satisfy people like myself who do find it to be an endearing object. I remember the one that used to fly around where I live when I was very young. It’s greatest quality besides the slowness was the noise.

I thought it was known as the “Shagbat” keeping the “S” prefix and bat is a flighty thing.

I think most of us have a soft spot for the Walrus : )

As Hugh Bergel once wrote about the Walrus…

Every landing,however good,sounded like a tin bath falling down the stairs : )

Come on guys, have a heart. She’s no A-list movie star for sure but her looks have a certain homely charm, certainly more seagull than walrus.

As a RN reconnaissance aeroplane it would have an animal name, Avro Bison, Fairey Seal, Parnall Panther, Blackburn Airedale and Supermarine Sea Otter (the Sea Otter as distinct from the fresh water Otter).

John

I suspect John has it about right,it does seem to fit that category of a/c and presumably the name was chosen to complement its looks !

Well they went back to using S with the Sea Otter and returned to Seagull with the ‘boat with variable incidence wings. Names were usually proposed by the company and then vetoed or rubber stamped by the Air Min so its a puzzle, although not exactly critical. I bet it annoyed Westland, one less W that they could use.

Nup, Westland Walrus was already there in 1925… maybe Walrus was code for something big, fat and ugly, with apologies to all Walri and Walrus lovers out there.

That actually raises another interesting question (to me at least :)) The Seagull V was said to have been started as a private ventures, as was the Scapa around the same time. But McLean, who had a chip on his shoulder having been forced out of control of Supermarine and Vickers Aviation in 1938 said the same about the Spitfire, which has been proven to be, lets be polite, an exageration. He did so to make a case for how smart he had been to get the Spitfire developed while officialdom was indifferent. I wonder whether the story about the Seagull V and Scapa being PVs too emanates from him? Personally I think that they probably were both PVs, a bold attempt to get new production contracts after a protracted null period.

Perhaps it was given the name ‘Walrus’ rather than the more logical Seagull mk VI to distinguish it from the Australian version, so that there would be no royalty claim (i.e. we paid for the development of that).

Nanok (Danish for Polar Bear) was another non-alliterative name that was used by Supermarine.

Yes used by but not chosen by Supermarine, the Danes chose the name. After it failed to come up to specification and was rejected Supermarine renamed it Solent, first to try and sell it in the guise of a torpedo bomber and subsequently as an air yacht.

As a RN reconnaissance aeroplane it would have an animal name, John

Ah, right ‘the rules’ about names. So would the fact that it was an amphibian intended for use on ships have narrowed the choice of animal type down a bit?

Apparently it was the RAF that gave it the name Walrus in 1935. Nanok (Danish for Polar Bear) was another non-alliterative name that was used by Supermarine.

As a RN reconnaissance aeroplane it would have an animal name, Avro Bison, Fairey Seal, Parnall Panther, Blackburn Airedale and Supermarine Sea Otter (the Sea Otter as distinct from the fresh water Otter).

John

Perhaps they wanted to give it the vernacular name of the Phalacrocorax Aristotelis but the company was not that bold in the thirties!

Cheeky! Some good gags on the thread already, too. I have to say that the Walrus is high on my list of aircraft I’d like to see in the air.

Adrian