Flying boats-biplanes Saunders Roe A.27 London and Supermarine Stranraer entered the Royal British Air Force in 1936-37, but were already considered obsolete. The requirements for their replacement were formulated by the British Aviation Ministry in the specification R.1/36. One of the participants in the competition was Saunders-Roe with her project A.36 Lerwick, work on which began in 1937. October 31, 1938 - the first flight of the Saunders-Roe A.36 Lerwick patrol flying boat.
It was a high-altitude flying boat with 2 ? Bristol Hercules II engines (1356 hp) The crew consisted of 6-9 people. The maximum speed is 344 km/h, the flight range is 2480 km. Armament ? 7 ? 7.7 mm machine guns + up to 907 kg of bombs / depth charges.
The tests revealed a number of problems with flight characteristics. It was not possible to eliminate everything, but the aircraft was put into mass production and adopted by the Royal Air Forces of Great Britain and Canada. 14 of the 21 A.36 Lerwick built were lost in accidents.
