Supermarine S.49 "Lady Lucy"
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Introduction
The 1949 Schneider Trophy Race recently culminated at the IPMS/Seattle
Spring Show on 4/16/2005 (see accompanying articles in this and the April
issue). This story features one of the racers in that event, the Supermarine
S.49 "Lady Lucy".
Supermarine and the Original Schneider Series
 The
English manufacturer Supermarine, along with engine maker Rolls-Royce,
played a prominent role in the original 1913-1931 Schneider Trophy races,
and produced the three aircraft which finally secured the trophy for Britain:
the S.5, S.6, and S.6B. The S.6B gained greater notoriety as the first
aircraft to exceed 400 mph. These beautiful aircraft were direct ancestors
of the later legendary Spitfire series of fighters.
The 1949 Race Effort
The man most closely associated with the design of the Supermarine
Schneider racers and the Spitfire was R.J. Mitchell. Mitchell died of
cancer in 1937, and by the late 1940s, what had been Supermarine was part
of the Vickers Armstrong company. At the time of the announcement of the
1949 Schneider race, there was not a consensus view among Britons on how
to defend the Trophy. Several British teams eventually formed to field
entries, but it was not until early 1949 that the idea of a commemorative
Supermarine entry took hold.It was natural that a Spitfire, famous progeny
of the S.6B and its stablemates, should be selected as the torchbearer
for the retro Supermarine project.
Birth of the S.49
 The
British government had pulled funding from the 1931 Schneider effort,
and the whole endeavor was saved only by the intervention of Lady Lucy
Houston, who had inherited her shipping magnate husband's £6m fortune
in the 1920s. She offered to pay £100,000 towards the cost of ensuring
British participation in what would be the ultimate race of the original
series. She died in 1936, and no such matron saint was in the offing for
the 1949 Supermarine Schneider project. Despite the nostalgic euphoria
associated with the Supermarine team, only a war surplus Mk XIV could
be secured as the platform for the racer. The specific airplane that would
become the "S.49" had been chasing V-1s over East Anglia 5 years
before, and spent most of the ensuing years in storage awaiting the scrapyard.
"Lady Lucy": The Racer and the Model
 The
S.49 was a resuscitated stock Spitfire Mk XIV modified by loving Vickers
Armstrong volunteers. Some of the changes were to remove some wing fairings,
install Mk Vb floats with custom pylons, and add a ventral fin for directional
stability. An open cockpit was adopted, trading a few knots of speed for
the promotion of heritage and nostalgia. The 1931 S.6B's race number of
1 was proudly worn. The S.6B's diagonal "sight" line on the
port wing was applied as a decorative, not functional, touch. The team
began calling the racer "Lady Lucy", in honor of the savior
of Britainıs Schneider hopes some 18 years previous. Maj. Ian Forthman,
a crack RAF flight test pilot, was recruited to carry the blue and silver
Supermarine colors at the 1949 Schneider Trophy race off Edinburgh. Testing
was barely completed prior to race week.
The model of the Supermarine S.49 is based on the very nice Academy
Mk XIV kit, with WTH floats and ventral fin, scratchbuilt float pylons,
and custom decals.
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