The Arado SSD.I was a German floatplane fighter of 1930 that was intended to be launched from catapults on warships. It hadn't any resemblance with any other Arado airplane of the period.
It was designed by Walter Rethel, the same who designed the Arado SD.I, SD.II and SD.III and consisted in a single-bay equi-span biplane in sesquiplane configuration with plywood-covered wooden wings with N-type struts. Unlike another designs of Rethel, it had ailerons both in upper and lower wings. The upper wing was slightly gulled into the upper side of the welded steel-tube of the fuselage ahead of the cockpit and the lower one was suspended below the fuselage and the gap was where the tunnel-type radiator was placed.
It was powered by a 640hp BMW VI 6,3 12-cylinder vee-type water-cooled engine and was armed with two 7,92mm machine guns.
The initial water trials were performed in Travemünde, where it was tested with a central main float and twin outrigger stabilising floats and, in order to cope with the restrictions of the Versailles treaty, it was unarmed. The floaters were latter replaced by a rudimentary wheeled undercarriage in order to transport it to Lipetsk, to perform the weaponry trials, where the twin 7,92mm machine guns were fitted in order to compete agains the Heinkel HD.38, which was selected. The sole prototype of the SSD.I was assigned in April 1932 to the Luftdienst GmbH and, one year later, to the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule (DVS) which was the German commercial pilots school. Apparently, once fitted with the wheeled undercarriage, it never got the floaters back.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_SSD_I
2. Salamander Books - The complete Book of Fighters.
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