Is my memory playing tricks - flying boat on Thames in 1997?

[havoc]

Help me out here - been following all the Martin Mars stuff in America as that big flying boat makes its final farewell, and it reminded me of something I am SURE happened, but google is failing to confirm.

I THINK* it was when I was working in Gravesend, with a view out across toward Tilbury...and middle of the day what do we see but a flying boat taxiing down the Thames left to right out towards the Channel...such an unusual event it sticks in the mind, especially for a plane geek like me (as I definitely was at the time, having just failed to get into the RAF).

Now at the time I thought it was the last flying Sunderland...and I swear I recall the press making a fuss of it. But google tells me that was 1993, when I should have been at school.

...so I'm now utterly confused. Can anyone whose memory is better than mine help me out?

Thanks.



* I can't think when else I'd have had a view of the Thames - river or estuary. A year or two earlier I was working on the Medway as hand on an old tourist paddle steamer, but the view would have been wrong.

[johnnyreggae]

Wasn't there a Catalina doing that sort of thing round about that time

[karma mechanic]

There was definitely a Catalina operating in 1998 when it crashed and sank near Southampton, with two fatalities. That one had been doing flights for paying passengers so it could have been doing the same on the Thames.

[havoc]

Thanks guys.

My memory is telling me it definitely wasn't a Catalina (very different side profile). Wondering if I've got the year wrong and it was 1993 and I was doing something else.

[LotusOmega375D]

Below shows the Catalina performing at Southend Airshow in the late 1990s, prior to the Southampton accident. It used to appear when the tide was in and do the odd landing and take-off West of the pier.

[Eric Mc]

The Short Sandringham now owned by Kermit Weeks operated off the Thames in 1982. Sounds a bit earlier than your recollection but here's the photo evidence.

[andyA700]

Eric Mc said:

The Short Sandringham now owned by Kermit Weeks operated off the Thames in 1982. Sounds a bit earlier than your recollection but here's the photo evidence.

Every other place seems to call this aircraft a Short S25 Sunderland mk5.

https://davidohodgson.com/2017/05/15/short-sunderl...

https://www.jetphotos.com/registration/G-BJHS

[karma mechanic]

I guess the Sandringhams were easily confused with the original Sunderland from which they were derived.There are three left, including the Kermit Weeks one.

Wiki link https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Sandringham


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Sandringham#...

Edited by karma mechanic on Monday 16th December 11:37

[2xChevrons]

karma mechanic said:

I guess the Sandringhams were easily confused with the original Sunderland from which they were derived.There are three left, including the Kermit Weeks one.

Wiki link https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Sandringham


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Sandringham#...

There's a technicality at play - Sandringhams all started life as Sunderlands, which were then converted by Shorts for civilian use. But Kermit Weeks' machine never returned to the Shorts works for conversion. It passed from the RNZAF to Airlines of New South Wales, an Ansett subsidiary. Ansett converted it into an airliner in their own workshops, so it can be claimed that it is, at best an 'unofficial' Sandringham or it remains a Sunderland MkV, albeit one adapted to civilian use by its operator, not its manufacturer.

[Eric Mc]

Yes - I was being sloppy in my terminology.

The two "Sandringhams" that survive were once operated by Ansett from Sydney to Lord Howe Island. They then passed to Charles Blair who had his own airline called Antilles Air Boats. He brought one of the two aircraft to Ireland and the UK in 1976 and 1977 to operate pleasure flights out of Southampton and Killaloe on the Shannon. I was lucky enough to see VP-LVE do a flypast of Dublin Airport's control tower. It was a lovely sight. 'LVE was the OFFICIAL Sandringham as it was the full conversion. The other aircraft operated under the US registration N158J

VP-LVE is now resident in the Solent Sea and Sky Museum in Southampton in its Antilles Air Boat colours. The colour scheme was basically the same one it had worn when operrated by Ansett.

[Trevatanus]

Eric Mc said:

Yes - I was being sloppy in my terminology.

The two "Sandringhams" that survive were once operated by Ansett from Sydney to Lord Howe Island. They then passed to Charles Blair who had his own airline called Antilles Air Boats. He brought one of the two aircraft to Ireland and the UK in 1976 and 1977 to operate pleasure flights out of Southampton and Killaloe on the Shannon. I was lucky enough to see VP-LVE do a flypast of Dublin Airport's control tower. It was a lovely sight. 'LVE was the OFFICIAL Sandringham as it was the full conversion. The other aircraft operated under the US registration N158J

VP-LVE is now resident in the Solent Sea and Sky Museum in Southampton in its Antilles Air Boat colours. The colour scheme was basically the same one it had worn when operrated by Ansett.

Had a look around the Ansett one a few years ago, holds a special interest as a good friend and I used to work for Ansett.

[lufbramatt]

Eric Mc said:

The Short Sandringham now owned by Kermit Weeks operated off the Thames in 1982. Sounds a bit earlier than your recollection but here's the photo evidence.

One of my earliest memories was seeing this in outside of the covered slips at Chatham Dockyard in the late 80's, think they had to do some repairs on it before it flew to the states.

There was a documentary on youtube that charted the journey, inside it was full on dark red velour 70s Playboy vibe