The Saunders A.3 Valkyrie was a large three-engined biplane flying boat with a wooden hull built to an Air Ministry specification.

The lower wing centre section was Consuta covered, mounted on a low pylon on the hull and braced to it with large N-shaped struts.

[1] The centre sections were joined by three sets of steel V-form struts,[3] from which the Valkyrie's three 680 hp (505 kW) Rolls-Royce Condor water-cooled engines were mounted midway between the wings.

[1] The Valkyrie flew for the first time around June 1926 in the hands of Frank Courtney and went to Air Ministry trials in the late spring of 1927 where the overall assessment was unenthusiastic.

This tour helped the Air Ministry to decide that the future of flying boats was with metal, rather than wooden hulls with their water absorbing properties.