About: Saunders-Roe Duchess

The Saunders-Roe Duchess also known as the model P.131 was a British design for a large jet-powered flying boat envisaged by Saunders-Roe, based in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The Duchess had been intended to follow on from the propeller-driven Princess and drew heavily upon its design. Being larger than preceding commercial flying boats, as well as the novel use of jet engines for such a vehicle, Saunders-Roe promoted the Duchess as representing the next generation of flying boats to various civilian airlines. During the early 1950s, it was also promoted for military applications such as aerial reconnaissance and military transport duties, as had been the Princess. An even larger flying boat, the Saunders-Roe Queen, was also proposed around the same time. Unlike the Princess, however, no