Short Empire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Empire | |
|---|---|
 The BOAC Short 'C' Class flying boat G-AFBL Cooee, at Rod El Faray, Egypt, c. 1942 |
|
| Type | Flying boat mail carrier |
| Manufacturer | Short Brothers |
| Maiden flight | 3 July 1936 |
| Primary user | Imperial Airways |
| Number built | 42 |
The Short Empire was a passenger and mail carrying flying boat, of the 1930s and 1940s, which flew between Britain and British colonies in Africa, Asia and Australia. It was manufactured by Short Brothers and was the precursor to the more famous Short Sunderland of World War II. In the United States, its contemporary was the Boeing 314.
Contents |
[edit] Design and development
The origins of the Empire boats lay in an Air Ministry requirement for passenger and mail carriers that could service the colonies particularly to make the connection to Australia.
The Empire was officially known as the C-class and each aircraft was christened with a name beginning with C. The first aircraft, G-ADHL Canopus, was completed in June 1936 and launched on 3 July. A total of 42 Empires were built, all at Short's Rochester factory.
Imperial Airways (and its successor BOAC), Qantas and TEAL operated the Short Empire.
The first series of the Short Empires, the S23, could carry 5 crew, 17 passengers, and 4,480 lb (2,035 kg) of cargo at a maximum speed of 174 knots (320 km/h).
The range of the S.23 was less than that of the US Sikorsky "Clipper" flying boats and as such they could not provide a trans-Atlantic service. Two boats (Caledonia and Cambria) were lightened and given long range tanks so they could make the trip but that meant they could carry fewer passengers and less cargo. In an attempt to manage the Altantic crossing a piggy-back approach was tried. Using a built up S.23 design as the main carrier and a smaller four-engined floatplane design, the Short S.20, mounted on its back. Only a single example was built of a carrier aircraft, the S.21 (Maia) and one S.20 (Mercury) together known as the Short Mayo Composite[1] A successful mid-air launch of Mercury was made in 1938.
The S30 series were fitted with Bristol Perseus sleeve valve engines and had a strengthened airframe allowing the take off weight to be increased to 46,000 pounds and giving a range of 1,500 miles. Cabot, Caribou, Clyde and Connemara were fitted with in-flight refuelling equipment and extra fuel tanks so they could be used for a trans-atlantic airmail service. The idea behind this was for the aircraft to take off and once airborne take on extra fuel to an all up weight of 53,000 pounds giving a range of over 2,500 miles. The extra fuel did reduce the payload to 4,270 pounds against the 6,250 pounds of the standard craft. The refuelling was by three converted Handley Page Harrow bombers, one operating out of Ireland and two out of Newfoundland.
In addition to the C class flying boats there were also three S.26 type built; these were known as the "G class" and had names starting with "G": Golden Hind, Golden Fleece and Golden Horn. They were a scaled up version of the C class, with a wing span of 134 ft (40.9 m) and a length of 101 ft. (30.9 m).
[edit] Variants
- S.26 : Passenger and mail flying-boat, powered by four 920-hp (686-kW) Bristol Perseus radial piston engines. 31 built.
- S.26M : Two Short S.23 flying boats were fitted with an ASV radar, and two machine gun turrets.
- S.30 : Passenger and mail flying-boat, powered by four 890-hp (664-kW) Bristol Perseus radial piston engines. Nine built.
- S.33 : Passenger and mail flying-boat, powered by four 920-hp (686-kW) Bristol Perseus radial piston engines. Two built.
- S.21 : (Maia) Carrier aircraft of the Short Mayo Composite
[edit] Service
During the Second World War the UK-Australia route was stopped and a new route was established which ran from Sydney to Durban via Cairo. This was stopped after the loss of Singapore but restarted when the Japanese were ousted from Burma and Malaya.
[edit] List of aircraft
| Registration | Name | Operator |
| S.23 | ||
| G-ADHL | Canopus | Imperial Airways/BOAC |
| G-ADHM | Caledonia | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-ADUT | Centaurus | Imperial Airways, to Royal Australian Air Force in 1939 (as serial A18-10) |
| G-ADUU | Caledonia | Imperial Airways |
| G-ADUV | Cambria | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-ADUW | Castor | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-ADUX | Cassiopea | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-ADUY | Capella | Imperial Airways |
| G-ADUZ | Cygnus | Imperial Airways |
| G-ADVA | Capricornus | Imperial Airways |
| G-ADVB | Corsair | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-ADVC | Courtier | Imperial Airways |
| G-ADVD | Challenger | Imperial Airways |
| G-ADVE | Centurion | Imperial Airways |
| G-AETV | Coriolanus | Imperial Airways, later BOAC, to QANTAS in 1942 (as registration VH-ABG) |
| G-AETW | Calpurnia | Imperial Airways. Crashed, sunk & wrecked, Lake Habbaniya, Iraq, 27 November 1938. |
| G-AETX | Ceres | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-AETY | Clio | Imperial Airways, later BOAC, to RAF in 1940 (as AX659) |
| G-AETZ | Circe | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-AEUA | Calypso | Imperial Airways, to QANTAS in 1939 not used directly, to Royal Australian Air Force (as serial A18-11) |
| G-AEUB | Camilla | Imperial Airways, later BOAC - to QANTAS (as VH-ADU) |
| G-AEUC | Corinna | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-AEUD | Cordelia | Imperial Airways, later BOAC, to RAF in 1940 (as AX660), returned to BOAC in 1941 (as G-AEUD) |
| G-AEUE | Cameronian | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-AEUF | Corinthian | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-AEUG | Coogee | Imperial Airways, to QANTAS in 1938 (as VH-ABC), to Royal Australian Air Force in 1939 (as A18-12) |
| G-AEUH | Corio | Imperial Airways, to QANTAS in 1938 (as VH-ABD), to Imperial Airways in 1939 (as G-AEUH) |
| G-AEUI | Coorong | Imperial Airways, to QANTAS in 1938 (as VH-ABE), to Imperial Airways in 1939 (as G-AEUI) |
| G-AFBJ | Carpentaria | Imperial Airways not used, to QANTAS in 1937 (as VH-ABA), to BOAC in 1942 (as G-AFBJ) |
| G-AFBK | Coolangatta | Imperial Airways not used, to QANTAS in 1937 (as VH-ABB), to Royal Australian Air Force in 1939 (as A18-13) |
| G-AFBL | Cooee | Imperial Airways not used, to QANTAS in 1937 (as VH-ABF) to BOAC in 1942 |
| S.26 | ||
| G-AFCI | Golden Hind | Imperial Airways, to RAF in 1940 (as X8275), to BOAC in 1941 (as G-AFCI), retired 21 September 1947 |
| G-AFCJ | Golden Fleece | Imperial Airways not used, to RAF in 1940 (as X8274), sank 20 June 1941 |
| G-AFCK | Golden Horn | Imperial Airways not used, to RAF in 1940 (as X8273), to BOAC in 1941, sank Lisbon 9 January 1943 |
| S.30 | ||
| G-AFCT | Champion | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-AFCU | Cabot | Imperial Airways, to RAF in 1939 (as V3137) |
| G-AFCV | Caribou | Imperial Airways, to RAF in 1939 (as V3138) |
| G-AFCW | Connemara | Imperial Airways |
| G-AFCX | Clyde | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-AFCY | Captain Cook | Imperial Airways, to TEAL in 1940 (as ZK-AMC Awarua) |
| G-AFCZ | Australia then Clare | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| G-AFDA | Aotearoa | Imperial Airways, to TEAL in 1940 (as ZK-AMA) |
| G-AFKZ | Cathay | Imperial Airways, later BOAC |
| S.33 | ||
| G-AFPZ | Clifton | BOAC, to RAAF (as A18-14), to QANTAS in 1942 (as VH-ACD) |
| G-AFRA | Cleopatra | BOAC |
[edit] Operators
[edit] Civil Operators
[edit] Military Operators
[edit] Specifications (Shorts S.23)
Data from The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft[2]
General characteristics
- Length: 88 ft (26.82m)
- Wingspan: 114 ft (34.75 m)
- Height: 31 ft 9¾ in (9.70 m)
- Wing area: 1,500 ft² (139.35 m²)
- Empty weight: 23,500 lb (10,659 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 40,500 lb (18,370 kg)
- Powerplant: 4× Bristol Pegasus radial engines, 920 hp (696 kW) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 200 mph (322 km/h)
- Range: 760 miles (1,223 km)
- Service ceiling 20,000 ft (6,100 m)
[edit] References
- ^ Robert Mayo – Short Aircraft Engineer's Concept
- ^ Donald, David(Editor) (1997). The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Aerospace Publishing. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.
- BOAC At War - Part 2 - Aeroplane Monthly - August 1975
- Sims, Phillip, Adventurous Empires. Airlife Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1-84037-130-7
- Vector site development of Sunderland through Empire boats
- Barnes C.H. & James D.N. Shorts Aircraft since 1900. London (1989): Putnam, 560. ISBN 0-85177-819-4.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
Related development
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
