S E Saunders Ltd (later Saunders Roe) on the Isle of Wight was set up in the 1920s to design and construct amphibians and flying boats, and one of the first designs produced by the Company was the Saro A.17 Cutty Sark.
The Nimbus series of gliders over the years produced by Schempp-Hirth in Germany, and designed by Klaus Holighaus, has been very popular and has been produced in a number of variants, a number having sustainer engines, and others fitted with Rotax engines and able to self launch.
The Saro A.21 Windover was of similar configuration to the Cutty Sark but was larger and had three Gipsy II engines and could accommodate a crew of two and six passengers.
The Ventus is a motorised glider produced by Schempp-Hirth in Germany. It was produced during the years 1980 to 1994 and was designed by Klaus Holighaus and replaced the Mini-Nimbus on the production line.
The Savage Monoplane, or Savage Special as it was also known, was one of a small number of New Zealand-designed and amateur-built aircraft to be successfully flown, having been granted a Certificate of Airworthiness.
Over the years manufacturers have looked at the requirements of commuter airlines with a view to producing new airliners to meet operator requirements.
The S.16 was a passenger carrying flying-boat built in Italy by the Societa Idrovolanti Alti Italia (SIAI) for operations of civil passenger carrying and was powered by a Fiat A.12bis engine.