Short Sunderland

Today the development and manufac­ture of almost every new type of mil­itary aircraft is a very expensive process and, in consequence, many exam­ples now stay in service for over 25 years. In the 1940s and 1950s things were quite different, aircraft were relatively cheap but. due to the great advances in aerodynamics and powerplants. tended to become obsolete remarkably quickly. So for a front-line mil­itary aircraft to enter RAF service before World War 2. to stay in production through­out the war, and then to stay in service until the late 1950s (and overseas through most of the 1960s) was an exceptional achievement. But then the Short Sunderland was an excep­tional aeroplane.