Day 017/24. One of my favourite models.

This small model is one of my favourites from the museum. Dinky first made these 70+ years ago.
The Short Mayo Composite of 'Mercury' and 'Maia' was a piggy-back long-range seaplane and flying boat combination produced by Short Brothers to provide a reliable long-range air transport service to North America and, potentially, to other distant places in the British Empire.
The large 'Maia' would take off and get to a resonable height before releasing 'Mercury' to continue on its long flight.
It first flew in 1937, it worked fine, but along came the war and the concept was never used.