I was reading a bit today, about Flying Boats....The few years post-WWII (1946-1950) was a fascinating (and busy) period for flying-boat services around the world. The period was, however, short-lived because land-based marathoners like Lockheed Constellations and Douglas DC-6s were already around the corner. In the U.K., with Short Brothers' (famous) war-time behemoths (particularly, S.23/S.30 Empire Flying Boats and S.25 Sunderlands/Sandringhams) readily available, BOAC revived its Flying Boat passenger routes, some routes were extended (or modified), and other new destinations were added. After the Shorts wartime factories were closed, all operations relocated to Belfast, in 1948, and, the Shorts became a Belfast company in its entirety.

At the war's end, BOAC had obtained many Sunderland Mark IIIs and equipped them with better (and more comfortable) accommodation for its passengers. Many examples were specifically converted for civilian flying-boat service. The first of the converted Sunderlands, G-AGJM, was called "Hythe", subject aircraft of this post. The Hythe had three interior layouts: The H.1 configuration had 16 seats on one deck, while the H.2 had an additional promenade deck, and the H.3 had 24 seats, or sleeping berths for 16. [You may search e.g. for "sunderland promenade deck cabin images" and take a look at those images...not sure about the quality and smoothness of flight at low altitudes, but the cabins surely look spacious and luxurious...] In January 1946, BOAC started using such Sunderlands between United Kingdom and Singapore (Singapore was among those (Post-WWII) "exotic" (Oriental) travel destinations, which the "affluent" wanted to travel to...!). These (BOAC) flights occurred at the frequency of three flights a week (Well...it all sounds very exciting, but quite unimaginable compared to such ultra-long flights being conducted now by the (most modern) likes of B787s/A350s instead...?).

As an example, between February 17 and April 2, G-AGJM made a 35,313 mile route survey flight from Poole (on the south coast of England) to Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. The flying time was 206 hrs and 9 mins. Thus G-AGJM became the first British airliner to alight on the bays of Shanghai and Tokyo, making it also the first British civil flying boat to visit China and Japan.

So, here, below, please find a collection of images of the S.25 Sunderland (see "BOAC" and "Hythe" labels on the close-up shots), lifting off the coastal waters of NZ-SI, and making a (symbolic) tour along the coastal areas, near the many spectacular mountain ranges of South (NZ) Island. There are actually several (vintage) images, found on-line, of (BOAC) G-AGJM “Hythe” moored in NZ e.g. at Mechanics Bay, Auckland. So, these, below, pictures and locale, are not too far-fetched, in terms of reality.

Hope you enjoy the pictures as reminiscent of these magnificent flying-boats, that pioneered such ultra-long travel, years before the Comet and 707 etc. jets took charge. Thanks for viewing...!

[FCS(Sunderland), Orbx(NZ-SI), REX]

Wow, you don't see this bird too often on this forum. Very nice shots, P_7878. What a difference to today's long haul flying. Must have been a true adventure in those days for everyone involved. I think I would have liked to try it. At least once 😉

Great to see one of these again. I have this beast in my hangar, but I haven't attempted to convert it for MSFS so I haven't been out in it for a long time. I have very fond memories of the Airfix kit of this from when I was a kid - it seemed huge at the time and was my pride and joy for a long while.

10 hours ago, bernd1151 said:

...I think I would have liked to try it. At least once 😉

Thanks, Bernd..!

BTW, here you go,...🙂...below is the (1946) schedule of (BOAC) Short Hythe flight from Poole to Sydney. You leave Poole Thursday 6am (start bright and early), have your first night-stop (Saturday night) in Rangoon (former capital of Burma (now Myanmar), leave Rangoon Sunday 5:45am, and reach Singapore same day at 4pm. Then, if you are up for it, you depart Singapore (next day) Monday 6am, and reach Sydney, Tuesday 5pm....sure, we would have missed all the en-route adventures, if it were by a modern airliner....🙂...

Poole 0600 Thu
Marseilles 1000/1100
Augusta (Sicily) 1640/1740
Cairo 2359/0230 Fri
Basra 0930/1030
Bahrain 1340/1440
Karachi 2240/0200 Sat
Calcutta 1140/1240
Rangoon 1710
(Nightstop)

Rangoon 0545 Sun
Penang 1205/1305
Singapore 1555
(Nightstop)

Singapore 0600 Mon
Surabaya 1145/1245
Darwin 2330/0130 Tue
Bowen (N Queensland) 1000/1100
Sydney 1700 Tue

 

7 hours ago, andy1252 said:

Great to see one of these again. I have this beast in my hangar, but I haven't attempted to convert it for MSFS so I haven't been out in it for a long time. I have very fond memories of the Airfix kit of this from when I was a kid - it seemed huge at the time and was my pride and joy for a long while.

Andy: The model looks good...(saw a few pictures of it on-line)....And, agree...nice to see these aircraft once in a while...as far as I recall, I have not touched it in years, but, thought of it, while reading about it this week...(Good thing about MSFS is you can do bits or instances of the whole flight, with a "converted" Short, on "reasonably accurate" scenery...(not just over patches of "blue" and "green", what I've...)...of course, those places (now) would not look the same as what they were in 1946...

 

Luckily We Live on a Planet with 2/3 Water😃

Like Andy, I too built the Airfix Sunderland. IIRC they modelled the moveable front gun turret (you can see it covered over on Hythe) would slide back into the fuselage when requiring access for mooring. The deployable bomb racks were optional on the Airfix kit. The racks of four would slide out below the wing, aft of mid-chord where the triple portholes are.

Thanks for sharing, P_7878

Mark: Nice image. Thanks...!

On 12/19/2020 at 2:16 PM, HighBypass said:

...they modelled the moveable front gun turret (you can see it covered over on Hythe) would slide back into the fuselage when requiring access for mooring...

Yes, that's a good point...In fact, I'd read and noted it for myself, but, had skipped, here, thinking it will be too much detail...but, obviously, not for someone like you...🙂...

Here is the Wiki text for it, "The turret could be winched back into the nose, revealing a small "deck" and demountable marine bollard used during mooring manoeuvres on the water..."

11 hours ago, P_7878 said:

but, obviously, not for someone like you

LOL! Only because I remember the model!  Not trying to criticise you for any lack of historical detail. 🍻