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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0931.PDF
580 FLIGHT SALUTE TO THE SUNDERLAND The Work of Flying-boats in Korea Emphasizes Need for Replacements THERE is real satisfaction to be gained from a statementby the Air Minister (by a coincidence, made in the House of Commons after this article had been set in type) that aflying boat, twice as heavy as the Sunderland, much faster, and having gas-turbine power, is now being considered forthe RJV..F. rl an interview early this year with Mr. Aidan Crawley,Under-Secretary of State for Air, General MacArthurexpressed his high regard for the work of Sunderlands in the Korean campaign; and, indeed, the record of these majestic old flying-boats is one of which the R.A.F. and Short Brothers may well be proud. The arduous duties assigned to the Sunderlands continue without remission: from Japanese bases they range along the Korean coast as far as the Manchurian border, and their round-the-clock patrols have most effectively deterred the Communist forces from running supplies in shore-hugging vessels. Their achievements are the more meritorious in that the design of the Sunderland is already about fifteen years old, and most of the examples operating in Korea have over six years' service or storage behind them. On his return from Japan earlier this year John Yoxall wrote in Flight, "Despite the age of the Sunderlands, their serviceability record is good. Like all other aircraft in the tropics, they suffer from electrical faults caused by the damp heat, but there is no excess corrosion of planing bottoms. After 800 hours' flying they are flown back to Britain for overhaul. Each crew then collects another boat and flies straight back. It is a great tri- bute to these aircraft that they should be giving such excellent service—their take-off characteristics and performance are considerably better than those of the Mariners—yet the basic design, that of the Short 'C class flying-boat, is more than fifteen years old. Certainly as they sit at their moorings they look quite modern." (The Mariners referred to are, of course, the sturdy twin-engined Martin monoplane flying-boats of the U.S. Navy.) In acquitting themselves so admirably in Korea the Sunderlands have furthered a great R.A.F. tradition which originated in the war of 1914 with the dangerous and weari- some patrols carried out by the seaplanes and flying-boats of the Royal Naval Air Service and, later, the Royal Air Force. The best work was done by Curtiss-R.N.A.S. "F" boats, notably F.2As, with two 360-h.p. Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines. In post-war years R.A.F. flying-boat squadrons received the following types: Supermarine Southampton (two Napier Lions); Blackburn Iris (three Rolls-Royce Condors); Blackburn Perth (three Rolls-Royce Buzzards); Short Singa- pore (four Rolls-Royce Kestrels); Short Rangoon (three Bristol Jupiters); Supermarine Scapa (two Rolls-Royce Kestrels); Supermarine Stranraer (two Bristol Pegasus); Saunders-Roe London (two Bristol Pegasus); and Saunders- Roe Lerwick (two Bristol Hercules). Exemplary service was rendered during the war by American Catahnas, but the only large British-designed flying-boat employed to any extent on offensive operations was the Sunderland. Even today—some twelve years after the first squadron was equipped—the lines of the Sunderland bespeak the essential soundness of the design, while its continued popu- larity among pilots testifies to its inherent Tightness as a flying machine. As already intimated, it was a development of the Empire class boat built for Imperial Airways. Twenty-six "Empire boats" formed the finest fleet of its kind ever de- livered to a civil operator, and in their day they were the envy of the world, not only by reason of the comfort and spacious- ness afforded by their deep, broad-beamed hulls, but by the
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