Short S.45A Solent Mk.4 — SH.1559 — ZK-AMO “Aranui”

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

I visited MOTAT at Auckland today, mainly to take a look at the Solent in its new home, and managed to strike it lucky and discover somebody working on it. While I was chatting to him, the conservator in charge of the restoration project turned up and allowed me to take a look inside the flying-boat. He gave me permission to go anywhere I liked, so I literally did, except that I kept out of the nose compartment and the tail compartments on both the upper and lower decks as they were full of bits & pieces which would have made it a bit hard moving around safely.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

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[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Rosevidney1]

Well done! The old girl is looking so much better than when I last saw her some seven years ago.

[India Four Two]

I agree. It's great to see her undercover. I'll definitely be going to MOTAT next time I'm in Auckland.

[blue up]

When you get there can you tell them to switch off the mags on engine number 2?

[GERBY]

SOLENT

kiwithrottlejokey.
Congratulations on the excellent pictures of the interior of the Solent. I was at MOTAT in February and thought the whole display brilliant. Nice to see the aircraft indoors. Am visiting again in Feb 15 , but leaving my wife at home!!!

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

My wife and I visited MOTAT in 2007 - an amazing place. ZKAMO was "indoors" then so prsumably it has been moved around? There was another one outside (NZ4115); has any progress been made in renovating it?





Bren McCartney
(Air Britain pics - Air-Britain : Brendan McCartney

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

There have been a lot of changes at MOTAT since you took those photographs in 2007. ZK-AMO was removed from the display hall and stored outside while a HUGE new display hall was constructed, with the new display hall opening late last year. A few months ago, the Solent was shifted into the new display hall and a major restoration has started (as you can see in the photographs taken in the lower deck last Thursday). The previous restoration was mainly cosmetic inside, but they are now dealing with a lot of accumulated water damage from the decades when it sat outside, as well as corrosion in a number of places. Work is also progressing on the Short Sunderland, which is still outside, however they are planning to move the Sunderland into the new display hall at some point in the near future. In fact, they are planning to move their entire collection that is still outside into there within a reasonable period of time. Currently, only the Sunderland, the Lodestar and the Ventura are parked outside, but not for too much longer.

CLICK HERE to view a thread about MOTAT the Wings over New Zealand messageboard forum, where the changes over the past few years are documented, including a large number of photographs.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Thanks for that KTJ. We had a kind of museum in southern England with some interesting aircraft, including a Drover. It was outdoors and sadly the aircraft were allowed to rot.

I'd love to visit MOTAT again but those days are long gone.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Here is some time-lapse imagery of the Solent being moved into the new Aviation Display Hall at MOTAT...

MOTAT Solent flying boat - YouTube

[PinkHarrier]

Nov 1953

As a kid I flew with TEAL from Suva to Auckland in Oct/Nov 1953 Would ZK-AMO have been the only possibility that I flew in and are there any TEAL passenger lists?
Cheers

[WHBM]

ZK-AMO was the last flying boat, withdrawn in September 1960. At the time you flew there were also ZK-AML and ZK-AMN (both sold to Aquila in the UK in 1954), ZK-AMM (burned out May 1954), ZK-AMG (withdrawn 1955) and ZK-AMQ (withdrawn 1956). Most of the regs between ZK-AMA and ZK-AMQ were used by the various big TEAL flying boats at some time postwar, not all at the same time. Flying boats were still on the runs to Australia and occasionally to the Chathams until mid-1954, when the fleet was halved from six to three, and then progressively reduced further as only one aircraft was required to handle the fortnightly Coral Route to Tahiti and the intermediate flights to Suva.

[joy ride]

Many thanks for the great photos and information. A few years ago I took my Dad to Solent Sky museum in Southampton, and Dad's service record meant that we got a thorough guided view of their Sandringham. There is something really special about old flying boats.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

If you find old flying boats really special, check out an earlier thread I posted showing a large number of photographs from the National Library of New Zealand photographic archives depicting civil flying-boat operations at Evans Bay, Wellington, NZ between 1937 and 1954....


http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ington-nz.html

[joy ride]

Many thanks, I saw those photos and posted a comment when you first posted them, but VERY happily just had another eyeful!

[washoutt]

Fascinating, when flying was still a matter of style.