Flying Empires Short ‘C’ class Empire flying boats Written by Brian Cassidy Published by Queens Parade Press 3 Queen’s Parade BATH BA1 2NJ UK. Typeset on an Amstrad 8512 in Locoscript 10pt. LX Roman type & published as a book in 1996 Transferred from Locoscript to Microsoft Word in 10pt. Times Roman Copyright © Brian Cassidy 2004 All rights reserved British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data ISBN 0 9529298 2 1 Universal Decimal Classification 629.135.5 Dewey Decimal Classification 20 629.133.347 1 Preface It is may even be too late now to record the full story of the forty-two, - nearly forty-three, - Empire flying-boats. Time and history move on quickly. Although some small scraps of the boats exist, none of the aircraft themselves have survived. So much about them has already vanished and most of those who flew and worked the ‘boats are, sadly, no longer here. For all practical purposes, the drawings and most of the calculations have gone up in smoke and unless someone, somewhere, has a hitherto undiscovered hoard of prints, they too seem to have all disappeared. The Empire flying-boats had a highly respectable pedigree. They were designed and built by the world’s first aircraft manufacturing company, led by one of the pioneers of metal construction for aircraft, Oswald Short, now seemingly forgotten. Oswald Short and Francis Webber designed the world’s first metal-hulled flying-boat, the minute Cockle. Arthur Gouge, with an apparently faultless eye for a flying-boat hull, succeeded Webber as Chief Designer, to design the Singapore I and set the line of ancestry that led to the Empire hull. The Seaplane Works at Rochester built twenty-seven flying-boats of eight different designs from the launch of the Singapore I in August 1926, to the roll-out of the first Empire ‘boat ten years later. Some mysteries remain, however. It is not entirely clear, for example, how many passenger seats remained on the Empire Air Mail Programme‘boats after the Flight Clerk’s office was moved down to the lower deck Was there a ladder between his new office on the lower passenger deck and the control deck above ? When Clio was converted to military status, extensive photographic cover showed the interior of the newly converted ‘boat. This shows the ladder in position with its guard rail on the upper deck to protect the opening. However, no one who worked on the ‘boats can remember it, although the ladder is clearly shown on various cut-away diagrams. Payload always being at a premium, which aircraft flew with the two inner wing tanks locked off so that they could not be used for fuel and for how long ? Were the passenger’s bunks ever rigged in flight ? Why was CAPRICORNUS descending in a snow storm with the engines throttled hack, just before it struck the ground ? How many of the Horseshoe ‘boats were re-engined with Pegasus XXII engines ? Some of the Horseshoe ‘boats had their fuel tankage increased from 650 gals.. to 1 010 gals. What effect did this have on the mainplane spars ? Indeed, how many spar designs were there ? There is reference in the Type Record of a Mark II. Why was the hull of the forty- third ‘boat kept in its crate in the Barge Yard until as late as 1943 ? How did Corsair get so far off course before setting down on the River Dangu ? And what really happened to CIRCE and CLARE, both of whom disappeared over the water with their passengers and crews ? Traces of CLARE were found hut nothing was heard or seen of CIRCE The Empire ‘boats were designed to carry the mail and for the first chapter of their history they did so. The sections of this book outlining the operations of the ‘boats on the Empire Air Mail Programme, and later on the Horseshoe Route and their wartime exploits, are no more than notes. A fully expanded account is needed to complete this corner of aviation history. The fact that an authentic general arrangement drawing of an Empire ‘boat could not he found is a considerable drawback. None of the existing three-view drawings, and most of them are no more that small scale diagrams, arc wholly accurate. Over the years, I have assembled – the correct word as the sources are many – a set of General Arrangement drawings. Until a print of an authentic Short Bros. GA can be found to check these drawings, they are probably the best available. To my certain knowledge, I have never seen an Empire ‘boat. Without the help of those I have met, who knew the Empire ‘boats inside and out, there would have been little to add to their story. Most of the photographs have been provided by Short Brothers plc. as prints of Mr Galloway’s magnificent photographs. My Maintenance Manual is a photocopy of Major Mayo’s, now lodged as part of the Mayo papers at the Science Museum. The photocopied text of the Manual has been reunited with an original screw bound hard cover, a gift of Eddy Gosling acquired during his time in the Drawing Office at Rochester. Diagram 29 of this hook, showing the construction of the tail of an Empire ‘boat, is one of his drawings. Permission to publish the photographs and the diagrams from the Maintenance Manual has been granted by Short Brothers plc. and is acknowledged with thanks. 2 My thanks also goes to the following have contributed material, advice and assistance of all kinds: Aerofilms Limited, Aéroport International Marseilles-Marignane, Air Historical branch Ministry of Defence, Captain M.J.R.Alderson, G.Angell, Air New Zealand,. W.Appleton, Arms and Armour Society, J.Ashmead, C.H.Austin, Australian War Memorial., G.H.Aveil, J.Bagley, C.H.Barnes, Bath City Library, Birmingham Public & Reference Libraries, Bristol Industrial Museum, BritishAerospace. British Airways, British Library, G.Brown, G.Bruce, P.B.Buckley, Captain J.W.Burgess, Canopus Inn, Chatham News, Chatham, Rochester and Gillingham News, Mrs. Chorley, Civil Aviation Agency, Konedobu, Papua-New Guinea, G.Clements. Coley Metals Ltd. H.Conway, A.Cormack, A.Cowling, D.Crook, G.W.Cussans, D.Dean, Defence Research Agency, Department of Civil Aviation, Melbourne, Department of Defence (Air Force Office) Canberra, Director of Civil Aviation, New Delhi, L.R.Dougal, Dowty Aerospace, Captain L.A,Egglesfield. Evening Post Chatham A.Finch. Commander Finseth, J.Fisher, Flight Refuelling Limited, Foynes Flying Boat Museum, J.D.Froggat, Captain B.Frost, Captain H.L.Fry, R.Funnell, B.Gardner. GEL-Marconi, P.Gilbert, Gillingham Reference Library, J.Gnosspelius, H.Gordon, E.L.Gosling, H.M.Coastguard. B.Halstead, P.Hammond, N.Harry, S.G.Hill, C.A.Hills, Hydrographic Department Ministry of Defence, Imperial War Museum, R..Jambon, Captain J.C.Kelly-Rogers, B.C.Kervell, J.Lamb, Kaptein B. Larsen, U.Larsstuvold, H.R.G.Lee, Mrs.P.Lowman, Lucas-CAV Ltd., W.H.Mares, J.W.McNeill, Ministre de I’Equipment du Logement de l’Amenagement du Territoire et des Transports,, W.W.Morgan, H.Morris, R.W.Morris, D..Mack Muir, Museum of Transport & Technology, Auckland, National Film Archive, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, New Guinea Mission, P.Newnham, Newport (lOW) Reference Library, R.Parsons, H.Penrose. B.Pettman, QANTAS Press Relations Sydney, S.Redman, Rhône-Poulenc, Rochester Museum, Rochester Public Library, R.Rodwell, H.Rolfe, N.F.Rose, Royal Aeronautical Society Library, Royal Air Force Museum Library, Royal Military Academy, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Royal Naval Air Station, Yeovilton, Science Museum, Shell UK., Smiths Industries Ltd., Southampton Central Library & Record Office, Solent Sky (formerly Southampton Hall of Aviation), Southern Evening Echo, Sperry Flight Systems,. J.Tattershall, The Patent Office, Tropical Diving Adventures, Boroko, Papua-New Guinea, University of Bristol Queen’s Library, D.Vincent, L.Wilson, H.J.Yea. Brian Cassidy Bath November 2005 3 Terms The Short Empire flying boats were primarily designed to carry the unsurcharged letter mail of the Empire Air Mail Scheme (EAMS) as it was originally known. From 1935 onwards, in the days of a flourishing British Empire, the Short S 23, S 30 and S.33 flying-boats were usually known as Empire Flying Boats or Empire flying boats. They were described as such in a Short Bros.’ letter dated 25 May 1935, - more than a year before the launch of the first ‘boat. Janes All the World’s Aircraft of 1938, referring to the fleet of thirty-one flying-boats, states that they were ‘known as the Empire type’ and known by Imperial Airways Limited (IAL) as the ‘C’ class’. Not only were they usually called Empire Flying Boats, but in the middle of 1938 it was Imperial Airways Limited’s intention to prefix the names of individual aircraft with ‘Imperial....’ - ‘Imperial Canopus’. ‘Imperial Caledonia’ and so forth. There is not much evidence that this cumbersome practice ever became widespread or indeed was ever used, although one of Imperial Airways Limited’s promotional posters, titled ‘AN IMPERIAL FLYING BOAT’, shows a cut-away, and perhaps Imperial, Calypso flying serenely over a sunlit archipelago. The names of the ‘boats were also prefixed with the initials RMA (Royal Mail Aircraft) when they were carrying the Royal Mail. On 29 June 1937 the Empire Air Mail Scheme (EAMS) became the Empire Air Mail Programme (EAMP) until 10 June 1940. The RMA prefix was used until 1940, when its use was supposed to have been discontinued. IAL traditions died hard and there are instances of the prefix being used well into British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) days. The names of the individual Empire flying-boats are given here in full capitals, prefixed with the last two letters of their registration.