Saunders-Roe SR.A/1

The Saunders-Roe SR. A/1 was a prototype flying-boat fighter that was inspired by the moderate success of the Imperial Japanese Navy's seaplanes like the Nakajima A6M2-N, which was a seaplane adaptation of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero or the Kawanishi N1K. Theoretically they were better suited to the Pacific Theatre of Operation as seaplanes could turn any calm coastal area into an airbase, with their main disadvantage being the way in which the bulk of their flotation gear penalised their combat performance.
Saunders-Roe saw the, back then, new jet-engine technology as an opportunity to overcome that drawback as, thanks to the jet, there wasn't any need for a propeller clearance, so the fuselage could sit lower into the water and use a flying-boat type fuselage. Saunders-Roe presented first their idea to the air-ministry back in 1943, the SR.44 which was never materialised and it was going to be powered by am almost prototypical Halford H.1 engine with an expected performance of 520mph (837km/h) at 40.000ft (12.200m). However, the air-ministry deemed the design as having a thickness/chord ratio as too high for a high-speed fighter operating at high altittudes. Therefore, the design was modified to comply with the newly issued E.6/44 by the air ministry in April 1944 on the modified design together with a development contract for three prototypes in May 1944.
However, as the war was over, its development was secondary and Saunders-Roe concentrated their efforts on the Saunders-Roe Princess long-range civilian flying-boat.
So, as the project was considered secondary, it wasn't until 16th July 1947 that the prototype flew for the first time at the hands of Geoffrey Tyson and, both the first and its two sisters showed good performance and handling with Tyson making a demonstration of aerobatics and inverted flight at the 1948 SBAC display. Anyway, the need for such aircraft had gone with the end of the war and, furthermore, the war in the Pacific showed that aircraft carriers were more effective at protecting the airpower over the ocean, although Saunders-Roe argued that both carriers and escorts were still very vulnerable to both aircraft and other ships. Additionally the cockpit canopy was small and heavily framed having a poor field of view. An automatic mooring system was added to aid the pilot without having to leave the cockpit.
It was powered by two Metropolitan-Vickers Beryl that yielded 3850lbf (17.2Kn) of thrust power, but there was a problem as Metropolitan-Vickers ceased on the production of jet engines, making therefore the availability of such engine very limited. Therefore, project was cancelled and the prototype was put into storage in 1950. After the outbreak of the Korean War, it was briefly resurrected in November 1950, before the realisation that it was obsolete when compared to land-based fighters and the inability to solve the shortage of engines so both factor combined, forced the cancellation of the project which flew for the last time in June 1951.
Two of the three prototypes were equipped with Martin-Baker ejection seats and the expected armament was 4 20mm Hispano Mk.5 cannons in the front part and a payload of 1000lb (455kg) of bombs or rockets under the wings.
It never received an official name, but company workers referred to it as "squirt".
It also served as the main inspiration for the P.121 which was never matherialized and which will be covered in future posts.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders-Roe_SR.A/1
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters