Saunders - Roe SR . A / 1 The Saunders - Roe SR . / A . 1 was a prototype flying boat fighter aircraft designed and built by Saunders - Roe . It was tested by the Royal Air Force shortly after World War II . Design and development . The SR . / A . 1 was directly inspired by the ( modest ) successes experienced by the Imperial Japanese Navy with seaplane fighters such as the Nakajima A6M2 - N ( an adaptation of the Mitsubishi Zero ) and the Kawanishi N1K . In theory , seaplanes were ideally suited to conditions in the Pacific theatre , and could turn any relatively calm area of coast into an airbase . Their main disadvantage came from the way in which the bulk of their floatation gear penalised their performance compared to other fighters . Saunders - Roe realised that the new turbojet engine presented an opportunity to overcome this drawback . Not requiring clearance for a propeller , the fuselage could sit lower in the water and utilise a flying boat - type hull . The company first presented their idea - SR . 44 - to the Air Ministry in mid - 1943 . Performance with Halford H . 1 engines was estimated at 520 mph at 40 , 000 ft . Criticism of the design included the wing thickness / chord ratio which was considered by the Ministry to be too high for a high - speed fighter operating at altitude . The design was modified and specification E . 6 / 44 was raised in April 1944 on the modified design with an accompanying development contract for three prototypes in May 1944 . With the end of the war and Saunders - Roe concentrating its efforts on their Saunders - Roe Princess very large long range civilian flying boat project , construction slipped behind . The first prototype , piloted by Geoffrey Tyson , flew on 16 July 1947 , and while it and its two sisters proved to have good performance and handling - Tyson made a demonstration of aerobatics and inverted flight at the 1948 SBAC Display - , the need for such aircraft had completely evaporated with the end of the war . Furthermore , the success of the aircraft carrier in the Pacific had demonstrated a far more effective way to project airpower over the oceans though Saunders - Roe argued that carriers and their escorts were still very vulnerable to aircraft or other vessels . In addition , the cockpit canopy was small and heavily framed , giving the pilot a poor view outside the aircraft . An automatic mooring system was incorporated so the pilot could moor the aircraft without external aid or leaving the cockpit . A fundamental problem was that production of the Beryl engine had ceased when Metropolitan - Vickers had withdrawn from jet engine development , and only a limited number of engines were available . The project was suspended and the prototype put into store in 1950 , but was briefly resurrected in November 1950 owing to the outbreak of the Korean War , before realisation of its obsolescence compared with land - based fighters and an inability to solve the engine problem forced a final cancellation , the prototype last flying in June 1951 . Saunders - Roe came up with a design with skis which " Flight " called the " Saunders Roe Hydroski " to improve the performance closer to land - based aircraft but " received no official support " . Although the aircraft never received an official name , it was referred to by company workers as ' Squirt ' . The two SR . / A . 1 prototypes were fitted with the first two production Martin - Baker ejection seats built . Survivors . The first prototype , serial number " TG263 " , has been preserved and is on display at Solent Sky aviation museum in Southampton . Both other aircraft ( " TG267 " and " TG271 " ) were lost in accidents during the four - year flight test programme .