What a fabulous documentary !. Commentary and photo quality are ace. Big or small the flying boats are the most beautiful planes ever built. Thanks all. Dave
29:10 There were only three Martin 130s ever built, and one disappeared in 1938. There's a credible theory that it was hijacked between Guam and it's final stop in Manila. If you want to see footage of one in flight, there's a Humphrey Bogart movie which shows it flying over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge which was still under construction
There was a seaplane station as it was called near Port Victoria in Kent that had a railway and pier built... and a seaplane base Navy near Seaford/newhaven also...
Ab amphibian is capable of being on land or water. For an airplane to be an amphibian it must have wheels for land and be a water aircraft as well. Thus, the Supermarine S4 and other aircraft mentioned are not amphibians.
There are just so many errors in this video, almost too numerous to mention. But I'll mention a few: - 1). at 24:14, your narration claims that the the S.23 C-class flying boats diid. not have the range to fly non-stop across the Atlantic ".... much to the British government's embarrassment ...". Not so: the C-class was not originally conceived as a trans-Atlantic aircraft. It could cross the Atlantic if loaded to the gunwales with fuel, very much the same as Pan Am's S-42s and Martin M-130s, neither of which could carry an economically-viable payload across the Atlantic, either. 2). at 25:03, your narration claims that the "... Americans had ready established a link across the Atlantic via their Clipper service." Not true: the video shows footage of the trans-atlantic trials between July and September 1937, conducted jointly (and simultaneously) by Pan Am and Imperial. At the time, neither airline had established a regular or commercial train-Atlantic air service, because neither company had an aircraft that was 'fit for purpose'. Indeed, during the 1937 trials, Imperial conducted twice as many non-stop trans-Atlantic trips as Pan Am. 3). at 28:55, the flying boat you caption as a "Martin M-130" is actually a Sikorsky S-42. 4). at 28:56, the first commercial trans-Pacific commercial service was by Martin M-130 (dept Alameda in the San Francisco Bay on 22 November 1935). It was not a passenger flight, so "luxury" didn't enter into the matter. 5). the first commercial passenger flight across the Pacific, left Alameda on 21 October 1936. It carried a few passengers, but not enough to make a profit and no mail. 6). at 28:59, it was the Empire (or: C-) class flying boat that was generally considered the "... most luxurious flying boat of its day ...", not the Sikorsky S-42 or the Martin M-130. 7). 29:41, your narration say that "... for the next few years, Pan Am's Clippers took passengers around the world." Not so: the only Clipper to make a circumnavigation did so as a result of the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941, when it was ordered to divert from its intended destination of Auckland NZ. From there, after lengthy discussions with Pan Am HQ by radio, it was decided that the safest thing to do was for the Clipper to return westbound to the US east coast, in multiple stages. The journey took almost exactly a month. From Auckland onwards, the Clipper carried only the crew but no passengers. 8). Having departed Alameda in California, and only returned to the US at New York, the trip was not a round-the-world flight in any event, and it certainly was not 'non-stop'. 9). at 34:44 & 35:34, the aircraft (called: "golden Hind") is not an "S.26 Sunderland", it's an "S.26 'Grenadier' (or: G-) class flying boat". The Sunderland was also made by Short Bros but it was designated 'S.25' and an entirely different flying boat. 10). at 35:41, the aircraft you label a "Short SE-5 Sunderland" is nothing of the sort. They are S.25 Sunderlands. The SE-5 was a biplane single-engine landplane fighter from the First World War, which first flew on 22 November 1916 and was designed and manufactured by the Royal Aircraft Factory. There's more - much, much more - in the way of mistakes in this video, but I'm growing bored.
An interesting fact, there are no seaplane training in England an island nation. Go to Winterhaven , Florida to Jack Browns Seaplane base, it's a great place to learn.
Lol Interesting fact; Britain bought and flew several PBY Catalinas during WWII. They used them to cover convoy routes to areas that could not be reached by other aircraft. They hunted U-Boats with them.... I dont know where the British Pilots flying them were trained, but they were trained somewhere....
Initial deliveries of the Royal Air Force's Catalinas began in early 1941 and these entered service with No. 209 and No. 240 squadrons of Coastal Command. In all, nine squadrons of Coastal Command were equipped with the Catalina, as were an additional 12 squadrons overseas. The total acquisition was approximately 700 spread over the following designations: Catalina Mk I, Mk IA (PBY-5A amphibian in RCAF service only), Mk IB, Mk II, Mk III, Mk IVB (Canadian built PBY-5, the PB2B-1), Mk IV, and Mk VI (a PBN-1 style tall tail version built in Canada). The Catalina Mk Vs, which would have been PBN-1s, were cancelled.
@@unitedwestand5100 it was a Catalina flying from Lough Erne in Northern Ireland that spotted Bismarck and radioed her position that led to her sinking Short Bros who are still the world 's oldest aircraft manufacturer were the great UK flying boat manufacturer and the first company to build all aluminium aircraft and the first vertical take off aircraft -the SC 1 .They were also the largest volume post 1945 UK commercial aircraft builder with almost 500 of their Skyvan/330/360.model .
@@mikes7639 Yeah I'm on that, I keep my mouse hovering right there and barely give them a nano second when 'skip' shows up. It seemed to be the video itself, not my history.
