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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 8, 2009 14:01:28 GMT 12
Here are a couple of nice shots taken by the late Neville Jackson of Short Solents
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Post by beagle on Sept 8, 2009 22:13:15 GMT 12
Kermie Weeks has one of ours or is it a Sunderland Is it airworthy ??
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Post by shorty on Sept 8, 2009 23:05:17 GMT 12
Sunderland and yes
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Post by Peter Lewis on Sept 8, 2009 23:13:08 GMT 12
The second pic is of course Solent 4 ZK-AML 'Aotearoa II' This was the aircraft that carried Queen Elizabeth from Fiji to Tonga for her visit in 1953. See coverage of this event at: www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=78521ZK-AML was later sold to Aquila Airways Ltd. as G-AOBL in 1955 and eventually became derelict at Lisbon, finally scrapped in 1971. Can't identify the top one, can we make the name legible? Kermit Week's 'boat was originally Sunderland Mk.5 ML814 and then NZ4108. Sold to Ansett ANA Pty.Ltd. in 1963 it was converted into a passenger configuration (so is configured as a Sandringham) by Ansett in Australia as VH-BRF. After service on the Lord Howe run until 1974 it then went to Antillies Air Boats as N185J and to Sunderland Ltd., Calshot (Edward Hulton) as G-BJHS where it ran into certification problems as the UK CAA said that as it was not converted by Shorts it could not be a Sandringham! Sold to Kermit Weeks, Florida it left the UK 20Jul93 by air to become N185J. It was kept airworthy for some time, but since it suffered damage in the famous hurricane that hit the area I understand that it has languished.
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Post by Andy Wright on Sept 9, 2009 12:49:03 GMT 12
A large proportion of the Weeks collection was damaged in '92 and I think the Sunderland fortunately missed all of that - or did she get damaged by another hurricane (Katrina?)? I believe she hasn't flown for a few years now but is rolled in and out of one of the Fantasy of Flight hangars for a bit of sun quite regularly. Great that she is under cover for the most part but recent visitors have reported she is looking a bit worn (PPrune forum).
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 28, 2009 23:02:00 GMT 12
Peter, I have got the original larger scan now and have tried to study the name but it's too blurry. What is odd is it is two words, yet the TEAL Solents only had one word names as far as I am aware: ZK-AML 'Aoteoroa II' ZK-AMM 'Ararangi' ZK-AMN 'Awatere' ZK-AMO 'Aranui' ZK-AMQ 'Aparima (Solent III ,originally G-AKNR 'City of Belfast') Could this be City of Belfast not yet overpainted, or is the first word TEAL??
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Post by Peter Lewis on Sept 28, 2009 23:33:30 GMT 12
I think the first bit could be RMA - they were all named in the 'RMA Ararangi' style Royal Mail Aircraft, like RMS for Royal Mail Steamer. As in:
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Post by aotearoa on Sept 29, 2009 0:23:31 GMT 12
The top photo is a Solent mainly due to the upper and lower intakes on the Hercules engines cowls while the Sunderland/Sandringham had the Pratts intake on the bottom of the engine cowls plus didn’t think the Sandringham had that type of TEAL paint scheme. Plus the Solents had two struts for each floats while the Solents have four struts on each float. NZ4108 was purchased by Weeks after 92, as hurricane Andrew was in 92 that destroyed week hangar. Last heard that NZ4108 is now sitting in a hangar. The TEAL Solent and Sandringham flying boats all had RMA in their names i.e. RMA ARARANGI. Not sure what the R.M.A meant I am sure someone can clear this up.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Sept 2, 2014 15:26:03 GMT 12
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Post by Peter Lewis on Sept 2, 2014 18:03:13 GMT 12
Sandringham, actually. Nice of them to use a photograph from my files without asking.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Sept 2, 2014 18:47:41 GMT 12
I thought you might notice that.
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Post by errolmartyn on Sept 2, 2014 20:29:17 GMT 12
Sandringham, actually. Nice of them to use a photograph from my files without asking. So lent photos they were not! Errol
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Post by Peter Lewis on Sept 2, 2014 21:14:49 GMT 12
Before we prepared the Short boat photos for the web, Marcus and I discussed the possibility of unauthorized use.
We figured that the historical signifigance of these images outweighed any other consideration.
So be it.
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Post by scrooge on Sept 3, 2014 11:35:10 GMT 12
At least they didn't strip your tag from the shot.
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ewen
Warrant Officer
Posts: 39
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Post by ewen on Sept 18, 2014 23:43:43 GMT 12
flyernzl, I for one appreciate what you have done. Google images led me to this site for starters. through your photos, and also to Leo White in general.
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ewen
Warrant Officer
Posts: 39
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Post by ewen on Sept 19, 2014 0:05:43 GMT 12
Firstly, apologies for the camera phone photos, but speaking of Solents and Leo White, have you seen this one before? It's the arrival of the Ararangi in Auckland and it's a pity you can't see more of the livery.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Sept 19, 2014 9:50:46 GMT 12
Nice to see, but the arrival date for ZK-AMM 'Ararangi' was 29Sep1949. No doubt the actual print was run off in October.
This was the Solent that was damaged by fire at Mechanics Bay in May 1954 and then scrapped.
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ewen
Warrant Officer
Posts: 39
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Post by ewen on Sept 19, 2014 19:33:07 GMT 12
That is the date I have too, captained by Griffiths and Kilgour.
I wasn't aware it was the one damaged but had heard the story. The Ararangi was also the last TEAL Solent chartered by the Department of Island Territories to service the Chathams.
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Post by snaphead on Sept 20, 2014 15:07:56 GMT 12
I arrived in NZ in a Solent, arrived 21 june 1951. My memories of the flight are very few but I recall seeing the water halfway up the passenger window on take off. We must have been on the lower deck. Dad has mentioned that the day before we left Sydney a TEAL Solent had to return due to engine failure. My parents emigrated to nz as ten bob immigrants. Dad says that there was nothing in Holland for them. They went dairy farming at Arapuni, as Dad (who was a qualified ships engineer) couldn't get employed.
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Post by davidd on Sept 20, 2014 18:00:58 GMT 12
Re RMS and RMA - RMS actually indicated Royal Mail Ship, not Steamer, although this is no doubt a common belief. Strictly speaking, a Steamer was propelled by reciprocating steam engines as opposed to turbines, although both were classed as steam ships. Both the "Queens" for instance were powered by steam turbines, as were many other great British liners of the so-called golden age of the great liners, and these were prefixed with RMS if they held mail contacts with the GPO. If a British liner happened to be powered by Diesels in those days (although they tended not to be then) it would have been known as a motor ship, which is one of the reasons it would have been sensible to use the term "ship" rather than "steamer" - best to use the generic term rather than differentiate when there is really no need to. However we don't hear much about "RMS" ships these days, as practically all large liners are of course cruise ships, not transatlantic greyhounds, or sinews of the British Empire. Perhaps they sometimes still carry mail, although I have no doubt that the vast majority of that commodity travels by air these days (that is, what little there is left of it after the ravages of e-mail, etc). David D
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