"Beyond the Blue Horizon". What an evocative piece of writing.
Was racking my brains or what's left of them. Wasn't there an attempt by a French chap, a couple of years ago, to set up a luxury trans Africa service following the old Imperial Airways route to Durban or Cape Town? I think he intended to use a Catalina (not a Short Empire but still a graceful flying boat from another continent).
I suspect that wars, bureaucracy and good old fashioned economics may have scuppered this idea.
I believe the Empire S.23 was the direct precursor to the military Sunderland. If the stories of the Sunderland's vibration are anything to go by, how bad was the Empire flying boat? Perhaps the well heeled passengers of the day were made of more sturdy stuff than today's voyagers. I suspect the occasional glass of bubbly and the knowledge that one was part of an empire upon which the sun would never set helped
.
I know my mother made a trip across Africa in the 50's in a DC6 and her being most complimentary about the experience despite the appearance of one of the pilots at certain points with a flash light to look at an engine that was disgorging an inappropriate amount of oil. The commercial industry had obviously moved on rapidly from the 30's and 40's.