Short Sunderland
The Short Sunderland was a British long-range maritime patrol flying boat built by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force. Developed from the company's Empire airliner flying boats, it entered service in 1938 and spent the Second World War hunting U-boats and watching over convoys, from the Atlantic to the Far East. It stayed in front-line RAF service for over twenty years, flying in the Berlin Airlift and the Korean War before retiring in 1959. Short Brothers built 749, and a few survive in museums.
Why It Mattered
The Sunderland was the Royal Air Force's standard long-range maritime patrol flying boat of the Second World War, built to hunt submarines and guard convoys far out over the ocean. It entered service in June 1938, and three squadrons had been equipped with the type by the start of the war in September 1939. Its defensive armament was strong enough that, as the RAF Museum records, German airmen nicknamed it the 'Flying Porcupine'. Short Brothers built 749 Sunderlands between 1938 and 1946. The type remained in front-line RAF service for over twenty years, and it was the last flying boat the Royal Air Force operated.
Design Notes
Shorts developed the Sunderland to Air Ministry Specification R.2/33, which called for a long-range patrol and reconnaissance flying boat. The design was a military development of the company's 'C'-Class Empire airliner flying boats, adapted to carry armament. It was the first British flying boat to have power-operated gun turrets as part of its defensive armament. Four Bristol Pegasus radial engines powered the aircraft. Its bombs, mines and depth charges were stored in a bomb room inside the fuselage and winched out to racks under the wing centre section for release.
Operational History
The prototype, K4774, made the type's first flight on 16 October 1937. The Sunderland entered RAF service in June 1938. Its wartime work centred on the Battle of the Atlantic, patrolling against the U-boats; an Australian Sunderland of No. 10 Squadron made the type's first unassisted U-boat kill on 17 July 1940. Long-range operations also ran from bases in Africa and the Far East, and Sunderlands saw action in the Mediterranean. The final Coastal Command Sunderland operational mission came in June 1945, over four weeks after the German surrender. After the war the type carried freight during the Berlin Airlift, 4,920 tonnes of it by the RAF Museum's account. During the Korean War, Sunderlands based in Japan flew nearly 900 operational sorties. The Sunderland finally retired from RAF service in 1959.
Afterlife
Only a few of the 749 Sunderlands survive today. The RAF Museum's example, ML824, is on display in Hangar 1 at Hendon in London. Another survivor, ML796, is on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. At Fantasy of Flight in Florida, ML814, a former passenger conversion, is described by Vintage Aviation News as the last four-engine passenger flying boat to cross a major ocean; it has not flown since 1996. An ex-RNZAF Sunderland, NZ4115, is displayed at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland.