short s25 sunderland

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

the short s.25 sunderland was a british flying boat patrol bomber, developed and constructed by short brothers for the royal air force (raf). the aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of sunderland in north east england. the sunderland had a deep hull, and the wings were set high on the fuselage, to keep the engines and propellers away from the water spray. for the time, its size was very impressive. the hull had a single step, which served to break the suction of the water, and allow the flying boat to unstick. the characteristic blunt nose contained a two-turret, and the tail a four-turret. to correct a problem with the center of gravity, the wings were given a slight sweepback; the result was that the engines were slightly toed out. this cost some engine efficiency, but an advantage was that it improved controllability with one engine out. the stabilizing floats under the wing tips were attached by two struts and wire-bracing. on the water the aircraft was steered by canvas drogues, which were deployed through the galley windows.