Talking about flying Boats ....

[hobie]

I came across this today ......

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0533943/M/ (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0533943/M/)

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1101411/M/ (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1101411/M/)

I wonder if they could land that in the Thames .... :confused:

[hobie]

well blow me down .....

I just found the answer to my question ....

and it's the same aircraft .......

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0533942/M/ (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0533942/M/)

[treadigraph]

Now with Kermit Weeks at Polk City... Had the pleasure of watching it fly at West Malling in the late 80s.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

When I was a wee kid, about 55 years ago, my dad took me to see a flying boat moored on the Thames, probably closse to Tower Bridge too. I can still visualise it today, but will probably never find out what it was!

Something like the one in your pic caused major problems at Heathrow some years back by flying down the Thames without talking to anyone!! We wondered if it was a helicopter ot light aircraft on the radar until the tower controllers espied it. Never knew what happened about that...

[Rainboe]

Southampton Hall of Aviation has one of these (Sandringham):
http://www.spitfireonline.co.uk/popup/exhibit9.html
with the famous seat that the old film starlet used (her husabnd operated the aeroplane)- forget her name. They allow you to climb aboard and crawl all over it on your own, and if you're really, really nice and chat with the guys looking after the place (after all, they are volunteers, and for some unaccountable reason, even with all those lovely exhibits lying around, they can get a bit bored and love to chinwag), they are only too delighted to take you up the ladder onto the flightdeck and sit you in the pilots seat. Exceptional!
Nice museum with excellent exhibits.

*Maureen O'Hara it was- her own comfy leather seat is at the back of the flightdeck. Nice to sit in it and let your mind go back to how it was 60 years ago. (wasn't she married to Tarzan?)

Can you believe some nasty U-boat actually shot one of these things down once? Mind you it was trying to depth charge them at the time.

[henry crun]

It was entertaining to watch the military Sunderlands practice "broken float" procedure.

The top hatch would open, then what seemed like all the crew except the pilot emerged, ran along the opposite wing, and sat or laid down at the tip.

The idea being to have as much weight as possible out there to stop the other wing with the broken float from going down.

[Halcyon Days]

I had the opportunity to fly on VP-LVE in 1975 when she visited the UK. It was on one of Stephen Pierceys organised trips.It landed in Studland Bay Dorset and we had an hours flight along the coast and round the Isle of Wight.We were allowed to wander around/look out of the astrodome etc whilst in flight
The great Charles Blair was in command. I have had a grin on my face ever since.
I would recommend any of Charles Blairs books-Like "Red ball in the sky" too.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b67/Maybee123/Sandringham26.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b67/Maybee123/Sandringham24CaptCharlesFBlair.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b67/Maybee123/Sandringham18.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b67/Maybee123/VP-LVESandringhamStudlandBay-1.jpg

[WHBM]

The linked photo at Tower Bridge was taken in 1982 but it came again in the late 1980s one Saturday afternoon, right overhead my house (close to LCY) then turned and headed very low level westbound along the Thames. Not certain if it landed then. Huge racket from 4 x R2800 thundering along at about 1,000 feet. And have seen it more recently in Kermit Weeks.

Reading the above looks like both Treadigraph and Heathrow Director were looking out at the same time :)

[hobie]

The great Charles Blair was in command

this is worth reading .....

http://www.speakeasy.org/~beck/blair.html

[Colonel Klink]

I used to watch both those two flying boats above (Charles Blairs and Kermit Weekes' flying boat operate out of Sydney Harbour when I was young and lived in Rose Bay. The Sandringham in Antilles colours (actually Ansett Airlines Flying Boat livery) used to fly from Rose Bay Flying Boat base to Lord Howe Island every day, together with its sister ship which was a converted Sunderland. Two orange DCA boats (Dept. of Civil Aviaition, in those days) would clear the water, and depending on the tide, away they would go, right down the bay and over the harbour.The service stopped in about 1975 when they built a strip on the island. Charles Blairs aircraft was known as Beachcomber and is indeed in Southampton now being displayed in its original Ansett colours. The other aircraft, Islander is about 20 minutes south of Orlando and Kermit Weeks keeps promising to make it airworthy again one day and flynit again. A wonderful way to travel and a great reminder of a golden age of travel.

[chevvron]

The one moored at Tower Pier as far as I recall had to be landed further downstream (Greenwich Reach?) and taxied to the Tower