↓Skip to main content

Flying Boats & Buses

Saunders-Roe (Anglesey) #

Best known for building advanced flying boats (like the massive Saunders-Roe Princess) and later the world’s first modern hovercraft (the SR.N1), Saunders-Roe found its marine and aviation orders drying up immediately after World War II. To keep their highly skilled metalworkers employed, they pivoted to commercial coachbuilding, utilising their specialised knowledge of lightweight, corrosion-resistant aircraft-grade aluminum alloy.

The result was the famous, ultra-lightweight “Rivaloy” bus body, which became a vital solution for bus operators starved of steel and timber in post-war Britain.

Saro (Saunders-Roe) Flying Boat (1937) #

Saro Flying Boat

A Saro London flying boat of No. 204 Squadron Royal Air Force (1930s): Air Ministry Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Click image to enlarge

  • Delivery Date: April 1937
  • Registration/Serial Number: K5911
  • Squadron: No. 204 Squadron RAF
  • Base: RAF Mount Batten, Plymouth

Rivaloy Bus (1953) #

Daimler bus with aluminium body

Daimler Freeline with Saunders-Roe aluminum body: 111 Emergency from New Zealand, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Click image to enlarge

This bus is one of initial batch of 90 Daimler Freelines ordered by Auckland. While the very first vehicle of the order was exported fully built from the Welsh shipyard, bus 201 was shipped across the globe in a Unit Knocked-Down (CKD) wooden crate layout.

  • Year Built: 1953
  • Fleet Number: 201
  • Registration: AFU950 (Originally registered as EZ2454)
  • Chassis: Daimler Freeline D650HS (Chassis No. 25081)
  • Bodywork: Saunders-Roe “Rivaloy” (B44D configuration: 44 seats, dual-door)

AEC Regent III (1954) #

AEC Regent III bus with aluminium body

A40 Saunders-Roe AEC Regent Liverpool City Transport Open Day Burscough June 2012: calflier001, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Click image to enlarge

  • Year Built: 1954 (Entered service November 1954)
  • Fleet Number: A40
  • Registration: NKD 540
  • Chassis: AEC Regent III
  • Bodywork: Saunders-Roe H32/26R (58 seats, rear entrance)
  • Location: Merseyside Transport Trust (MTT)

Saunders-Roe SRN 4 Mk 3 Hovercraft #

The Princess Anne Hovercraft

The Princess Anne Saunders Roe SRN 4 Mk 3 ariving at Calais: Joost J. Bakker from IJmuiden, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Click image to enlarge

  • Year Built: 1968 (Stretched to Mark 3 configuration in 1978)
  • Name / Fleet Number: The Princess Anne (GH-2007)
  • Registration / ID: BHC Serial No. 04 / SR.N4 Mk 3
  • Type: Mountbatten-class Passenger/Vehicle Hovercraft (Amphibious ACV)
  • Powerplant: 4 × Rolls-Royce Marine Proteus gas-turbine engines (15,200 shp total)
  • Capacity: 427 passengers and 60 cars
  • Location: Preserved as the premier display exhibit at The Hovercraft Museum, Lee-on-the-Solent.

End Of An Era #

Saunders-Roe derelict buildings

The former Saunders Roe site at Beaumaris (6) by Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Click image to enlarge

The Saunders-Roe name finally vanished from Anglesey in 1968. The parent company had already sold its aviation and hovercraft interests to Westland Aircraft. The Beaumaris and Llangefni operations were merged with the engineering division of Birkenhead shipbuilders Cammell Laird to form a new entity: Laird (Anglesey) Ltd.

In 1996, Laird (Anglesey) was acquired by the German engineering firm FAUN (part of the KIRCHHOFF Group). FAUN officially ceased operations at the Beaumaris site, moving the entirety of the manufacturing business into a purpose-built, modern facility just up the road in Llangefni.

The Beaumaris site closed for good in 1997.


Sources #