Designed for the specification 35/35, the Airspeed AS.31 was an experimental high-speed airplane that could carry eight wing-mounted guns, just like the Hawker Hurricane or the Supermarine Spitfire did.
Four airplane developing firms entered in the contest to win the contract, and this was, by far, the most unusual design to be submitted.
It was a tractor monoplane where the tailplane, fixed to the wing by twin metal booms, housed the egg-shaped cockpit. No rudder or fin surface was indicated in the blueprints whatsoever. However some split flaps were fitted across the trailing edge of the wing, between the booms, with the wide-span ailerons outboarding them. A widetrack undercarriage arrangement was to be fitted and the airplane was to be powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin E engine.
Apparently a wing tunnel scale model was made, which, after tested, it showed that this unusual arrangement generated an intolerable amount of G-forces during high speed turns and the design was completely abandoned.
Sources:
1. http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2407.msg20160#msg20160
2. http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/AIRSPEED%20AS31%20PAGE.htm
3. Putnam's British Aircraft - Airspeed Aircraft since 1931
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