The Kennedy Giant was a British
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
heavy bomber
Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larges ...
designed by Kennedy Aeroplanes Ltd. during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The design was an imitation of works by
Igor Sikorsky
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский, p=ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvitʃ sʲɪˈkorskʲɪj, a=Ru-Igor Sikorsky.ogg, tr. ''Ígor' Ivánovich Sikórskiy''; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972)Fortie ...
, with whom the owner of Kennedy Aeroplanes Ltd., C. J. H. Mackenzie-Kennedy, had ostensibly worked prior to setting up the company. The aeroplane was a notorious failure; its size meant that construction had to take place in an open field as none of the hangars near
Hayes, Middlesex
Hayes is a town in west London, historically situated within the county of Middlesex, and now part of the London Borough of Hillingdon. The town's population, including its localities Hayes End, Harlington and Yeading, was recorded as 83,564 i ...
, where the prototype was assembled, were large enough to house it. For its weight, the aircraft's four engines were inadequate, and the resulting under-powered aircraft could only fly in a straight line once airborne.
Following the unimpressive
test flight
Flight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops specialist equipment required for testing aircraft behaviour and systems. Instrumentation systems are developed using proprietary transducers and data acquisition systems. D ...
, the design was cancelled and the prototype was left derelict at
Northolt Aerodrome
("Ready to carry or to fight")
, pushpin_map = Greater London
, pushpin_label = RAF Northolt
, pushpin_map_caption = Shown within Greater London
, coordinates =
, type = Royal Air Force station
, code =
, site_area =
, height =
, owners ...
for a number of years.
Specifications
See also
*
Sikorsky Ilya Muromets
The Sikorsky ''Ilya Muromets'' (russian: Сикорский Илья Муромец) (Sikorsky S-22, S-23, S-24, S-25, S-26 and S-27) were a class of Russian pre-World War I large four-engine commercial airliners and military heavy bombers used ...
*
Slesarev Svyatogor
The Svyatogor (russian: Святого́р) was a large experimental Russian aircraft, constructed by Vasily Slesarev in 1916. The aircraft was named after the mythological hero Svyatogor.
Development
The work on the Svyatogor began in 1913. ...
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*
*
*{{cite journal, title=Correspondence, journal=WW1 Aero, date=February 1986, issue=108, pages=18–19
External linksletter on McKenzie-Kennedy in ''Flight'' 1967
in ''Flight'' 1967
Giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
1910s British bomber aircraft
Four-engined push-pull aircraft
Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United Kingdom
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1917