Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Sept 13, 2017 20:21:14 GMT 12
I found the following article on the STUFF website while searching for something else (it was published by the Taranaki Daily News last week).
from the Taranaki Daily News....
Remembering trans-Tasman fun in the flying boat era
When flights to Aussie were more than a boring three hour chore.
By ROGER HANSON | 2:02PM - Thursday, 07 September 2017
TEAL's second Short S-30 Empire Class Flying Boat, “Awarua”, lands on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour on April 3rd, 1940, after its delivery flight from Southampton.
— Photograph: Whites Aviation/National Library of NZ/Ref: WA-B2.
FLYING across the Tasman is routine today with over 500 flights per week.
Auckland to Sydney is a comfortable three and a half hours, but it wasn't always that way.
The weather during the 2,000 kilometre crossing is challenging and unpredictable — the middle of the Tasman Sea in a howling gale is not a place for the faint hearted.
In the 1930s using landplanes for commercial crossings over large stretches of sea was considered too risky.
Aircraft engines were far less reliable than today. Ditching a passenger plane in the ocean would not end well.
Imperial Airways in Britain was set up with the goal of providing an air link across the British Empire.
In 1935 the Australia to London route took 12 days and involved 31 stopovers.
The real prize however was trans-atlantic flight and such a span of ocean necessitated flying boats, but the early flying boats lacked the required range.
To get to America, Imperial Airways had to ship their first flying boats to Bermuda which was then used as the base to fly to New York.
Likewise Pan Am in the United States obtained its flying boat experience on the Florida to Cuba route.
It was Pan Am who introduced the first transatlantic passenger service in 1939 using the revolutionary Boeing 314 flying boat.
The crossing from New York to Marseilles took 27 hours which included a fuel stop in the Azores.
In 1940, the formation of Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) was followed by the introduction of flying boats into New Zealand.
TEAL's inaugural flight was a nine hour flight from Auckland to Sydney in a Short S-30 Empire flying boat.
On board were six crew, nine passengers and 41,000 letters.
The crew included the pilot, co-pilot, radio-operator, navigator, flight engineer and stewards.
It wasn't until 1946 that hostesses were used on these flights.
In January 1942, Prime Minister Walter Nash flew in a TEAL flying boat to Washington. This was the first flying boat to land in Hawaii after the Pearl Harbour attack.
On the return flight, the aircraft was mistaken for a Japanese flying boat and came under fire from the ground sending a bullet through the wing. Fortunately the aircraft arrived home safely.
Short S-30s were used for six years and replaced by five Short Sandringhams.
These were maintenance intensive aircraft and not entirely suited to the trans-Tasman service.
On one flight in December 1947, two hours out of Sydney technical problems meant the aircraft had to descend to just 15 metres above the sea.
After the captain had ordered all baggage, freight and radio equipment to be jettisoned, the aircraft managed to limp back to Sydney.
In 1949 the first of the Short Solent flying boats were introduced to replace the Sandringhams.
The Solent which was more powerful and reliable, could take 45 passengers across the Tasman in seven hours.
In 1950 TEAL commenced flights from Wellington to Sydney.
On one flight a powerful gust of wind struck the flying boat “Ararangi” as it approached its Evans Bay landing site, damaging a wing and smashing three windows.
The year 1951 saw the introduction of TEAL's legendary “Coral Route” to the Pacific Islands – this comprised a return trip to Tahiti with stopovers in Fiji and the Cook Islands. Samoa was introduced in 1952.
A serious disadvantage of all the Short flying boats was that the cabins could not be pressurised.
This meant they couldn't fly above the clouds and out of the weather — turbulent crossings were common.
On a flight in May 1940 the “Aotearoa”, half way across from Sydney was hit by two violent wind gusts, flinging passengers out of their seats and tossing dinner plates around the cabin.
The last trans-Tasman flight in a flying boat was in 1954 and in that year TEAL introduced the first landplane to cross the Tasman, a chartered Douglas DC4.
Subsequently Douglas DC6 aircraft were used on TEALs' routes to Australia.
In 1940 a flying boat ticket to Sydney cost £30, the equivalent of 30 days of the average wage, however despite the cost and sometimes turbulent flight, for elegance and sheer fun, flying boats surely beat the mundane ease of today's trans-Tasman flights.
www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/lifestyle/96602000