The SRA.1 carried the wartime floatplane-fighter idea into the jet age. Saunders-Roe built three experimental turbojet aircraft, each able to use water where a prepared runway was unavailable. The concept still had practical appeal before helicopters and V/STOL aircraft offered other ways to base aircraft forward. A fighter could reach forward operating areas without conventional airfield infrastructure. Its small production run kept it an experiment rather than an operational system.
Notable Point · 5:56-6:45
The postwar appeal of water-based fighters
The experimental Saunders-Roe SRA.1 carried the idea of water-based fighters into the jet age when airfields remained scarce.