Spring off from Litvyak's AltBC thread:
http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=19.msg25302#msg25302In 1929 the Royal BC Navy issued a requirement for a float-fighter suited to coastal operations. The aircraft was to be locally built and points would be assigned for local compenents (an HAE fixed-pitched wooden propeller being mandatory). Submissions were received from Boeing, Bolas, de Havilland, and Supermarine.
The first submission was from the newly-formed Bolas Aircraft of BC. The unnamed Bolas float fighter was an updated Parnall
Plover with monocoque wooden fuselage and a single-float gear with outriggers (by Hoffar Aircraft Floats).
Power for the Bolas float fighter was meant to be a 600 hp HAE HIV-12A-2. When that engine failed its bench tests, a cowled 525 hp Bristol
Jupiter XIF radial was substituted. The RBCN rejected the Bolas float fighter as having insufficient development potential, encouraging Bolas to work on more advanced designs.
De Havilland BC proposed a development of the parent firm's DH.77 light fighter. This aircraft would have an enlarged tailplane and be powered by a 301 hp air-cooled Napier
Halford/E.95
Rapier Srs. I engine.
As the DH.77(BC), this '
Diamondback Moth' was the only submission with a cockpit canopy to deal with BC's weather. However, the RBCN's technical board was dubious of the complex Napier engine. DHBC declined to redesign the DH.77(BC) for an indigenous HAE powerplant and the '
Diamondback Moth' was withdrawn from the float fighter competition.
Other than the winning Supermarine
Stingray, the only submission to the 1929 float-fighter competition to reach the hardware stage was Boeing's Model 100BC '
Botanie'.* This was the parent firm's Model 100 mounted on twin Edo floats and powered by a 525 hp Pratt & Whitney S1D1
Wasp or 560 hp SD-1
Hornet.
Boeing was prepared to discuss other engine options including the 490 hp Armstrong Siddeley
Jaguar VI, 500 hp Bristol
Jupiter XI, and 585 hp Wright SR-1820-F-41
Cyclone. No HAE powerplant option was discussed. The Model 100BC demonstrator was flown from Seattle to Esquimalt for trials but the RCBN had already set its cap on Supermarine's
Stingray.
[* Botanie = 'shrouded by cloud (or fog)' in Nlaka'pamux/Thompson.]