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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1839.PDF
962 FLIGHT "Flight" photograph A STANDARD FOR NO. 201 SQN. . . . No one who has served in "boats" speaks ill of them, and thoughthe strong claims of their supporters have not borne fruit in the form of a Sunderland replacement, boats have repeatedly demon-strated their unique qualities both as general-purpose aircraft and as potent anti-submarine weapons. Though for one reason andanother no Sunderland replacement has been ordered in England, the United States Navy has not ceased active development of thetype for a number of operational roles. The latest transatlantic enterprise is, of course, the Martin P6Mswept-wing, jet propelled flying-boat, which is designed to oper- ate either as a minelayer or photographic reconnaissance machine.It incorporates the results of an extensive programme of research on flying-boat hull shapes which has resulted in water-bornecharacteristics far in advance of those of boats of the Sunderland's vintage. Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten of Burma,saw the P6M during a recent visit to the United States, and the influence of this project on English thinking will be awaited withgreat interest. The United States Navy has also for many years operated the Martin Mars transport flying-boats between Cali-fornia and Honolulu, and for these also a replacement has emerged in the form of the turboprop-powered Convair R3Y Tradewind.This particular machine, in later versions, is designed to be able to disgorge its cargo directly on to any beach negotiable by landingcraft and has a self-contained cargo ramp in the nose and reversing airscrews which make it largely independent of shore facilities. It is well known that R.A.F. thinking on oversea patrol workis based on the land-based aircraft, and one cannot help feeling that the days of the small number of flying-boats remaining in serviceare numbered, if only because nothing is at the moment being done to provide a replacement despite the fact that a completedesign is in existence. Yet the boat squadrons are convinced that the Sunderland can do anything the Shackleton can while providing a standard of comfort quite unattainable in a practicalland-based aircraft. Furthermore, they have proved by their achievements since the war that even the Sunderland, which isbasically a military aircraft, will serve relatively efficiently as a transport and, above all, provides a flexibility of operation quiteunattainable by any other aircraft. By flexibility is meant the capability to work in areas where runways are not necessarilyin existence. A particular example occurred when, during the war, German submarines began to sink ships in convoy en routeto South Africa. A flying-boat squadron was immediately sent to a point on the coast to begin operations. With nothing but anarea of relatively sheltered water and a number of marine craft for support, it began patrols, and sinkings were immediately dras-tically reduced. The peace-time equivalent of this operation was the use of Sunderlands—they were, in 1953, the five machines ofNo. 201 Sqn.—to fly supplies to the British North Greenland Expedition on the shores of Britannia Lake. They flew fromPembroke Dock, via Rejkjavik to Young Sound whence they moved 70 tons of assorted stores to Britannia Lake. This wasobviously an operation which in the time could have been per- formed by no other aircraft. But here an incident occurred which illustrates another facet offlying-boat operations. The crew of each aircraft approaches more closely to its nautical equivalent than in any other branch of theAir Force. The peculiar conditions of operation from water mean that the crew takes a very large part in routine servicing andusually a boat is flown by only one crew. They carry out their own refuelling, keep the aircraft clean, look after it in many waysand get to know it well. In rough weather they stand by it and, if necessary, live on board. They therefore take a pride in theirboat and, consequently, they become strongly attached to it and know a great deal about it. When, therefore, the Sunderland "C"Charlie was forced aground by wind and threatening ice floes on Britannia Lake, the crew set about salvaging the aircraft them-selves. In three days of continuous work, helped by members of the expedition which they were supplying, they managedto refloat the aircraft despite a steady falling of the water level in the lake. They applied a specially prepared canvas mat like abandage to the underside of the hull, secured it with ropes and forced it into place with an inflated dinghy. Motor-driven andhand pumps were kept going all the time until as many of the holes as could be found had been plugged with combinations of chewinggum, mastic and half a ton of cement. The cement was in fact mixed on the floor of the bomb room before being applied to thedamaged section of the hull. Anxious hours passed as the now almost exhausted crew waited to see if the concrete would set inthe bitter cold; and all the time the pumping operations continued with the aid of a hand pump which had to be perpetually dis-mantled and cleaned after the motor-driven pump had finally seized. The aircraft was at last brought to a flyable conditiondespite the fact that the water level in the forward bilges had never dropped low enough for the salvage workers to be able tosee directly the damage they were trying to repair. The bandages were removed and, with water spurting in under the pressure ofthe take-off run "C" Charlie finally got airborne from Britannia Lake and flew as quickly as possible to the M.U. on Wig Bay inScotland. Repairs had been continued in the air. Another operation carried out by No. 201 Squadron was their (Top) Like everyone who has served in fly- ing-boats, S/L. D. W. Bedford, Commander of No. 201 Sqn., and G/C. P. A. Lombard, Station Commander at Pembroke Dock, are both enthusiastic about the qualities of such aircraft. Though the Sunder- land might seem un- wieldy, No. 201 Squadron showed that formation flying fright) was we// with- in their capabilities. "Flight" photograph
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