I was a 4th grade schoolkid in Sydney in 1960. Lived at Darling point, school at Double Bay, and used to ride my bike to Rose Bay to watch the Sunderlands and eat oysters from under the pier. Got my private licence at 17. The Victa Airtourer I soloed in is still flying.
@dragonbutt13 жыл бұрын
Earns my vote for the best looking flying boat :D.
@coobykid16 жыл бұрын
I flew in these flying boats out of Seletar in Singapore in 1949-50. I went on several bombing missions over Malaya in these great aircraft. My job was loading the bomb racks after each bombing run.
@FRANCEGERMANYTHEUNITEDKINGDOM6 ай бұрын
Amazing!
@fordlandau16 жыл бұрын
As a kid I sailed on Sydney Harbour in the 1960s and 1970s. The images of the Flying Boat landing on the Harbour you see at the end of this posting were being repeated until late 60s. Shark Island is visible in the shot and the aeroplane is seen taking off with Point Piper in the background. The Water Airport was at Rose Bay nearby. By the 60s Ansett was using later versions of these planes to fly to Lord Howe Island, which then had no airstrip
@glenac05 Жыл бұрын
If you go to Kermit Weeks channel, he has one of the former Ansett Short Sunderlands in his collection. No longer air worthy unfortunately. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpmUe3xvZduEqsk
@JeffGR411 жыл бұрын
I wish they would revive the glorious flying boats. A glamorous form of travel, that's for sure!
@maryrafuse38513 жыл бұрын
Glamorous and very romantic.
@20abracadabra1212 жыл бұрын
Seaplanes are the most practical form of transport, Always wondered why they never had an airport for them and regular flight path`s. Get`s into trouble and can ditch afloat. I just remember the snider trophy winner when i was at school.
@user-jn1tr8mo3g14 жыл бұрын
Strangely no mention of the Corsair which crash landed on a small river in the Belgian Congo. Eventually after damming the river and rebuilding the plane they managed to fly it out again.
@Kapitananime14 жыл бұрын
@jeanniedee After WWII Airports became very common around the world. These mighty machines were very pretty but they were very slow. The Constellation and the stratocruiser were faster and soon became the standard for many nation's airlines. Soon those propeller planes were replaced by jets and the idea of luxury was passed over for larger passenger volumes. Now Airliners are just Geryhound buses with wings.
@coppinger10011 жыл бұрын
What beautiful creatures!
@fokkerwokker8 жыл бұрын
Absolutely brilliant collection! Thank you for going to the trouble - made my day to watch!
@mentonish11 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the memories, as a Young lad I remember the short Sunderland seaplanes in moth balls in the solent arround 1950
@johnjephcote76364 жыл бұрын
Yes, I too treasure the memory of having an Aquila Airways 'Solent' land very close to our sightseeing (inspecting the Queen Mary and other liners) boat. The Sunderlands hung on at Seletar until 1960, I believe, about the same time and place as the Beaufighter-and then there were those grey ghosts, the three Princess flying boats on the ramp at Calshot.
@lasalleman13 жыл бұрын
Love those Imperial Airways flying boats.
@th3st1g558 жыл бұрын
MARVELLOUS ABSOLUTELY MARVELLOUS!!! Such a shame FANTASTIC aircraft like this don't fly anymore! 😧😧😧😧😧😧. It's so sad that such ICONIC aircraft as this & many others around the same time are gone but, hopefully NOT FORGOTTEN!!!
@nedmarc16 жыл бұрын
To think they did so much on just 3600 bhp! I would love to fly on one!
@stephenbreen11 жыл бұрын
Incredible footage and what a way to travel!
@GREEROPS16 жыл бұрын
Great footage! I am lucky to live in a part of the world where you can still routinely see a water bombing run by a Martin Mars and were small communities are still linked by a de Havilland Beaver on floats. If you are lucky you get to sit in the co-pilot seat but only to discover that the pilot looks to be barely 14 and that the manufacturer's plate on the dash announces the age of the plane to be well in excess of your own. There is nothing like flying at 500' at 120 with a snarling P&W R-985
@MrDelhud11 жыл бұрын
Marvellous footage and a lot of hard work Well done sir
@oldgringo200112 жыл бұрын
@LoveOfRighteousness The sun never set on the British Empire in the 1930s, so it was possible to fly from London to Singapore without ever landing anywhere that wasn't part of a British colony or Dominion. KLM couldn't, but the Dutch have been very careful to stay good friends with the British since 1783, so it could use the same routes to get to the Dutch East Indies, which were right next to Singapore.
@will89141014 жыл бұрын
´´THE GOLD YEARS´´
@stormwell11 жыл бұрын
The British government did use British seaplanes, hell it had the Sanders-Roe Princess built in the 1950s for what was British Overseas Airways Corporation. But BOAC wasn't interested and went with American airliners.
@oldgringo200112 жыл бұрын
@irishimp2 Imperial 109 is one of my all-time favorites, but it's very hard to find now. The air-to-air refueling used in the book was never used on commercial flights because it never got approval from Britain's Air Ministry. But it was very practical; it was the same probe-and-drogue system used by the US Navy and just about every Air Force in the world today--except the USAF, which decided to go for something incompatible with the US Navy's equipment.
@LTF8519917 жыл бұрын
cool thanks for posting!
@thestinson10812 жыл бұрын
amazing feat of engineering
@thegrayknight7113 жыл бұрын
Very beautiful.
@kenspinozastone71956 жыл бұрын
So proud it's BRITISH
@taswegian11 жыл бұрын
Just blew my father in law away. He has a picture of the "Caledonia" delivering the mail to the Seychelles from before he was born! To see it in this video blew him away
@baward8 жыл бұрын
Very nicely put together, thanks!
@ronjon79422 жыл бұрын
Brits have such regal names for their Empire assets.
@TonyKitchen4717 жыл бұрын
Very interesting
@diabeticalien35847 жыл бұрын
These [planes are the most useful, and practical of all time. Why aren't these planes being used today?
@dkroen176 жыл бұрын
Expensive to operate. They were great when places had more water options then runways. Not that way anymore.
@thegrayknight7111 жыл бұрын
Madness. The english government should have bought and used english flying boats. Then they would have supported thousands of jobs instead of just "buy american".
@peterhunt874310 жыл бұрын
the beginning footage of this video shows the plans of the Empire Flying Boat drawn by Brian Cassidy and then photos from his website at www.users.waitrose.com/~mbcass. . The plans are available from the site as either a4 free downloads or to buy full size.
@maryrafuse38513 жыл бұрын
After the sadness of R-101 the Empire Class Flying Boats were majestic wonderful creations. All the best from Canada. Cheers!
@megatwingo14 жыл бұрын
5*****!
@dvdinjp13 жыл бұрын
How much for one of these for a team of 4 + 2 pilots and cargo room?