Giant flying boats that ended up grounded - 5 Oct 2015 - By Keith Hamilton Southern Daily Echo, Shipping & Heritage Reporter - If the ambitious project had, quite literally, taken off then the history of Southampton would have been changed forever.

On a fine summer's day in the August of 1952 an aircraft - huge even by today's standards - heaved itself into the air over the Solent and heralded what was then considered to be a new age in global travel.

The Saunders-Roe Princess flying boat, one of the largest aircraft in existence more than 60 years ago, had been designed the carry passengers in unequalled luxury and to rival the great ocean-going liners on the traditional Atlantic passenger between Southampton and New York.

However, this initial promise was never fulfilled and in the end just three giant Princess flying boats were built, only to face an ignominious end in the breaker's yard.

If fate had decreed otherwise and the Princess had become a success, this would have had a huge impact on Southampton as the main port for transatlantic liners.

But, in that summer of more than six decades ago, optimism was high that the aircraft's six propellers and sumptuous interiors would make the Princess an unqualified success.

The aircraft's bulbous "double bubble" fuselage contained two passenger decks - first class and tourist class - with room for 105 passengers in great comfort and included in the six strong crew were two pilots, two engineers, a navigator and a radio operator.

Initial design work was begun in 1945 by Isle of Wight company, Saunders Roe, when it was decided that Southampton to New York route would be best served by flying boats.

This project carried on from the pre-war attempts by Imperial Airways at crossing the Atlantic non-stop and so the Cowes based company began work on what was hoped would become the new airliner to bridge the Atlantic.

Three aircraft were ordered at enormous public expense, with the initial cost of £2.5m soaring to a final cost of five times the original estimate.

As the day of the flying boat's maiden flight approached there was a strong sense of expectation, especially among local people around the Solent. But there was to be disappointment at first, as bad weather conditions forced the postponement of the crucial take-off. Finally on Friday, August 22, the 140-ton Princess flew for the first time at 12.23pm, less than 15 minutes after slipping her moorings.

For just 35 minutes, with test pilot Geoffrey Tyson at the controls, the Princess flew to a height of 2,500 feet and at an average speed of 250mph over Southampton Water, Hythe and the Isle of Wight.

The historic moment when the Princess took to the sky for the first time was described, minute by minute, by the Daily Echo at the time.

"A crew of 12 went aboard in the middle of the morning and there was no sign of life until 11.35am, when a short puff of black smoke from the port coupled engine, and the contra-rotating propellers began to spin faster and faster," the paper reported.

"Then one by one, at two minute intervals, the other engines began to cough into life. Shortly after mid-day the Princess' turbo-prop had roared up for chief test pilot, Geoffrey Tyson to make the decision to taxi.

"In a fog of white spray, she had almost disappeared down Cowes Roads towards Spithead when she turned, gathered speed and lifted easily from the water. She was soon over Hythe pier and the New Forest, then making a wide-left hand circuit over the Isle of Wight.

"She disappeared into haze and billowing white cloud towards Portsmouth, to reappear 20 minutes later over the Channel."

After landing the pilot told the Daily Echo: "She was easy and light as a fighter to handle and unless there is some technical hitch the Princess will be flying over the Farborough Air Display next month."

But even on the day of the maiden flight questions were already being asked what was to be the future for the Princess flying boat.

Initially, Princess No. 1, was used form experimental flights by Saunders-Roe and the Ministry of Supply.

Her two sisters, one was on the concrete apron of the factory and the other still in the hangar, never flew. Although at first airlines showed interest in the Princess, eventually the orders were cancelled as land-based aircraft became the chosen form of travel.

The flying boats became a familiar sight stored at Calshot Spit and eventually in 1967, they were broken up for scrap.

свернуть