View Full Version : A Sunderland in Civvies
Isleofthanet
4th Jun 2021, 18:51
Talking Pictures Saturday 5 June at 6 a.m. 1950s, a short film following the Sunderland seaplane.
chevvron
4th Jun 2021, 19:03
Talking Pictures Saturday 5 June at 6 a.m. 1950s, a short film following the Sunderland seaplane.
FLYING BOAT not seaplane!!
Pypard
4th Jun 2021, 19:56
FLYING BOAT not seaplane!!
A man after my own heart :)
The term seaplane covers both float plane and flying boat, at least in all my references.
FlightlessParrot
5th Jun 2021, 05:54
The term seaplane covers both float plane and flying boat, at least in all my references.
This is a difference between US and British usage.
For aeroplanes that land (?) and take off from the water, British English has no single common term: they are EITHER "flying boats", OR "seaplanes"; "seaplane" means what US English means by "float plane."
US English has a common term, "seaplane", for aircraft operating from water: they are either "flying boats" or "float planes".
So, in British English, the Maia/Mercury composite was a seaplane on the back of a flying boat; in US English, a float plane on the back of a flying boat.
I was brought up on British usage, but I think US usage is preferable, since a common term for water-based aircraft seems like a useful thing to have. I don't know whether amphibians are also included under "seaplane" in US usage, or ekranoplans, come to that.
brakedwell
5th Jun 2021, 09:13
The Sunderland brings back very good memories. In 1952 it was the first aircraft I flew in, as a member of the school CCF, when I went on a two week summer camp to RAF Pembroke Dock. The Squadron that was based there was 230 and they had Sunderland Mk 5's. We flew almost everyday, mostly out to the southwest on Atlantic patrols. I loved it and became a very good cook with a primus stove, cooking mainly eggs, bacon and fried bread. I even became quite good at flying the damn thing from the left hand seat, even though it felt very heavy! I remember one trip up to Shorts at Belfast to pick up spare parts very well. We landed in the bay outside the harbour then taxied in to Short Brothers and Harland, parking next to the harbour wall. After a brew up of tea, the parts were delivered, we started the engines and "taxied" out to the bay for take off. The next two camps, an East Anglican Canberra base and Plymouth Mountbatten were boring in comparison.
Cornish Jack
5th Jun 2021, 09:40
Re. "landing", the 50s pedants term for flying boat water touch-downs, was 'alighting' !!
FlightlessParrot
5th Jun 2021, 15:03
Re. "landing", the 50s pedants term for flying boat water touch-downs, was 'alighting' !!
Thank you, I knew there was a word I had forgotten.
Give the OP some slack. The description of the film used the term "seaplane".
Isleofthanet
5th Jun 2021, 19:34
I am quoting the description as on Talking Pictures!!
Alan
Isleofthanet
5th Jun 2021, 19:39
Give the OP some slack. The description of the film used the term "seaplane".
Thankyou, having been in the RAF i think i know what a Sunderland is!! It seems correct terminology is more important here than what has actually been written and why!
Alan
DuncanDoenitz
5th Jun 2021, 21:28
Thankyou, having been in the RAF i think i know what a Sunderland is!! It seems correct terminology is more important here than what has actually been written and why!
Alan
I certainly find it annoying when correspondents are more interested with correcting peoples's grammar and drifting off at a tangent. (Strictly speaking, of course, a tangent is a line intercepting an arc and transecting the radius at a right angle, although other views are held).
Anyway, the Sunderland was a flying plane that floated on the sea like a boat so, I suppose, all of the above.
DD (formerly-230 Sqn Pumas)
FP, and then there is the Gallaudet Hydroplane, like me you may have thought it referred to a boat, but then I read Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
brakedwell
6th Jun 2021, 06:39
Sunderland - It was a big white aeroplane with four engines that made a lot of noise. it landed on the water and did not fly very fast.
Sunderland - It was a big white aeroplane with four engines that made a lot of noise. it landed on the water and did not fly very fast.
.........but could fly for a very long time - hence the galley!
Cheers
mcdhu
2 sheds
6th Jun 2021, 12:10
Re. "landing", the 50s pedants term for flying boat water touch-downs, was 'alighting' !!
...or to be pedantic, the correct term!
2 s
rog747
6th Jun 2021, 13:50
Aquila Airways were a UK Civvies' Airline - a Holiday airline to Lisbon, Madeira, Corsica and Las Palmas.
Aircraft operated all were derives of the Sunderland -
Short Sandringham
Short Solent
Short Sunderland
After the end of the Berlin Airlift, Aquila hoped to find more work for their fleet on passenger charters.
Aquila obtained an agreement with British European Airways under which they were permitted to operate scheduled services from Southampton to Lisbon and Madeira.
These flights were supplemented by charter flights to other Med destinations.
The popular Madeira service continued in 1950/51 and was joined by a Southampton to Jersey service from 7 July 1950, which used St Aubins Bay to land its passengers.
Operations during 1952 the airline continued to operate schedules to Madeira and the Canary Islands with newly acquired aircraft.
In 1954 the British Aviation Services Group took control of Aquila Airways, the last commercial flying boat operator in the UK.
During the late 1950s, Aquila Airways faced stiff competition from land based aircraft and were unable to obtain replacement flying boats (offers to purchase the prototype Princess flying boats having been rebuffed).
In 1957 an Aquila Airways flight crashed on the Isle of Wight in England on 15 November. With 45 lives lost, at the time it was the worst aircraft accident on English soil.
The aircraft, a Short Solent 3 flying boat named the City of Sydney, registered G-AKNU, departed Southampton Water at 22:46 on a night flight to Las Palmas and Madeira via Lisbon.
At 22:54 the crew radioed to report ''No. 4 engine feathered, Coming back in a hurry!''
During the attempt to return, the Solent crashed into the steep eastern slope of Shalcombe Down, above the small villages of Chessell and Shalcombe. At the time of impact the plane was banked 45 degrees to the right, the same side of the aircraft that had lost all engine power according to the accident report.
Three soldiers on a night-exercise were close by when the crash happened and were on the scene within minutes; they managed to rescue some of the survivors from the burning wreckage. Out of 58 souls on board - only 13 survived.
The essential cause remains unknown.
The accident was caused by the failure of the No.3 engine while the No.4 engine was also stopped. What caused the initial failure of the No.4 engine is unknown. The cause of the subsequent number 3 engine to also stop was either an electrical failure in the fuel cut-off actuator circuit, or the accidental operation of the cut-off switch.
Aquila Airways, after operating for 10 years, announced in July 1958 it would cease operations, nine months after the crash.
Re. "landing", the 50s pedants term for flying boat water touch-downs, was 'alightingI think the Air Ministry was having a bob each way, the Sunderland pilot notes give the procedures for "alighting" but says the aircraft is fitted with "landing lamps", for runways only perhaps. ;) The USN just mentions landing in their flying boats.