The RAE Scarab was a light single-engined single-seat parasol winged modification of the de Havilland Humming Bird

De Havilland Humming Bird

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, flying in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 1932. Only one was built.

Development

The Aero Club of the Royal Aircraft Establishment

Royal Aircraft Establishment

The Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...

 built two light aircraft in 1923, the Zephyr

RAE Zephyr

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 and the Hurricane

RAE Hurricane

The RAE Hurricane was a single-seat, single-engined light monoplane designed and built by the Aero Club of the Royal Aircraft Establishment for the 1923 Lympne Motor Glider Competition. It was underpowered with an unreliable engine...

, then no more until 1931. This, their final effort was the RAE Scarab or PB Scarab as it is sometimes known, after its designers P G N Peters and C R Brewer.Even so, it was not all their own work for the wing and empennage were from a low-winged DH.53

De Havilland Humming Bird

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, itself a 1923 aircraft. What they did was to reposition the wing on a new fuselage to make a new, parasol winged monoplane, a change that required the creation of a centre section and the struts to support it.

With its new fuselage, the Scarab was longer than the DH.53, at 21 ft 0 in (6.40 m) compared with 19 ft 8 in (5.99 m). Most of the extra length was in the nose, for the DH.53 was a very snub-nosed machine compared with the Scarab. Both aircraft had flat sided fuselages built up from four longerons in the usual manner of the time, with rounded decking. The DH.53 pilot had sat over mid-chord, but the combination of 5^o of sweepback and the change of centre of gravity due to the longer nose in the Scarab meant he could sit at the trailing edge of the new, narrow chord centre section. Given the small gap between the top of the fuselage and the underside of the parasol wing, a mid chord cockpit would have been inaccessible and have restricted the pilot's view severely. A pair of lift stuts extended in a V from the lower fuselage longerons on each side to the two wing spars at the point where these were thickened for the compression struts of the DH.53. As on the DH.53, the wings had constant chord with slightly rounded tips, carrying long differential ailerons. In contrast to those of the DH.53, the wings of the Scarab folded for transport. The Scarab's undercarriage was also new, a split axle unit with the main legs going to the upper longerons and bracing to the lower ones. The undercarriage track was 5 ft (1.52 m). Like some DH.53s, the Scarab was powered by a 32 hp (24 kW) Bristol Cherub

Bristol Cherub

-See also:-Bibliography:* Guttery, T.E. The Shuttleworth Collection. London: Wm. Carling & Co, 1969. ISBN 901319-01-5* Lumsden, Alec. British Piston Engines and their Aircraft. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-85310-294-6....

 III flat twin.

The sole Scarab was registered as G-ABOH . Its first flight was in February 1932 with H.H. Leech at the controls. Though underpowered and slow, it seems to have flown nicely and had a surprising rate of climb. It flew from Farnborough

Farnborough Airfield

Farnborough Airport or TAG London Farnborough Airport is an airport situated in Farnborough, Rushmoor, Hampshire, England...

 until 1938, when it was stored and then scrapped in 1945.

Specifications