Editing Supermarine (section)

===Schneider Trophy 1925 to 1927===
[[File:Schneider Trophy at Venice-1927.jpg|thumb|Supermarine S.5 at the Schneider Trophy contest in Venice in 1927]]
While it had been Scott-Paine' love of speed and competitive nature that had been the driving force behind the company's entry's in the early Schneider Trophy contests, Bird was happy to continue Supermarine's involvement as he wanted to use it to enhance the company profile. After the failure of their 1924 entry, and realizing that other countries designs were far superior, Mitchell reached the conclusion that racing flying boats were no longer competitive. As a result, he designed a monoplane seaplane called the [[Supermarine S.4|S.4]] which was used to set a new world air speed record over [[Southampton Water]] of 226.75&nbsp;mph (364.9&nbsp;km/h). However the sole example crashed during testing prior to the event, forcing the company to withdraw from the event.

With sponsorship from the Air Ministry, Mitchell began to design a new streamlined monoplane aircraft designated the [[Supermarine S.5|S.5]]. Compared with the S.4 which was completely fabricated from wood, the new design had metal floats and fuselage. This was a major risk as at the time Supermarine had no prior experience in metal construction and had still to commission their new metalworking department. Unfortunately as neither the S.5 nor any other design from a British company was ready in time Britain did not enter the 1926 contest. Once the design was finished Supermarine received an order in late 1926 for two examples, with an order for a third following in early 1927.  The S.5 dominated the 1927 contest, finishing first and second. The third example crashed killing its pilot while he was attempting to set a new air speed record over the Solent in 1928.