The Short Mayo Composite

Henry R Palmer, The Seaplanes, Leonard Morgan Publishing, 1965

Seemed like a good idea at the time...
The 1937 Short Mayo Composite was an experiment in long distance seaplane flight. The smaller Mercury seaplane, loaded with a 1000lb payload and enough fuel for a trans-ocean trip could not lift off the water and this was the ungainly solution. The launch was a success- the Mercury flew from England to Montreal in 1938 and was the first commercial Atlantic crossing by a heavier-than-air craft. In 1939, the Mercury was launched in the same way and flew non-stop 5998 miles from Dundee, Ireland to South Africa for a new long distance seaplane record. Needless to say, this method of launch was too expensive, tricky and dangerous and was soon abandoned.

  The war put paid to the project.  Maia was destroyed at harbour by German bombs in May 1941.  The same year, Mercury was broken up for the value of her aluminum for the war effort.  While the idea of a composite aircraft may have been destined to become just a footnote in aviation history, the idea was revived in 1976 as  the inspiration for ferrying the space shuttle on a Boeing 747.

You can watch the aircraft flying on youtube.