Library Reference Number: 226
Sunderland Upon Thames
A colleague member recently asked whether there is still a Sunderland flying anywhere in the world. In view of the continuing interest in the subject, members may like to see the following account of the last flying Sunderland.
It must have been sometime in 1981 that I received a telephone call from a complete stranger. Edward Hulton Jnr told me that he had recently bought a Sunderland Flying Boat. It was currently moored in Marseilles and he would very much like to bring it to England. In conversation, he mentioned that it was his dream to have the aircraft landed on the River Thames. He had been given my name as someone who might be interested.
Sunderland ML814 had been built at Short Bros & Harland’s shipyard at Belfast in 1944. It had served with 201, 330 and 422 (RCAF) Squadrons and transferred to the RNZAF in 1953 to become NZ4108. It went to ANSETT Airways in 1953 as VH-BRF flying in the Pacific with the name “Islander' then to Antiles Air Boats operating under USA Reg. N158J Excaliber. It was bought by Edward Hulton in June 1979 and re-registered in the UK as G-BJHS.
I immediately contacted the Port of London Authority and, after discussions, arranged for an aircraft mooring to be laid between Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast, for the river to be closed to traffic when the aircraft was due to alight, and for Tower Bridge to be opened to allow the aircraft to taxi under the bridge between the landing area downstream of Tower Bridge to the mooring upstream. I also arranged with the appropriate Thames Water departments to have the river swept to ensure that the aircraft would not be damaged by striking floating debris on landing. (I should perhaps mention that, at the time, I was a Director of Thames Water, so it was not too difficult to make all the arrangements).
On Friday 6th August 1982 the aircraft touched down as planned, and using a Thames Water launch, I led it under Tower Bridge to the mooring. As a Freeman of the City of London I am apparently entitled to lead a flock of sheep across London Bridge (usually misinterpreted as Tower Bridge) into the City. I can say without hesitation that I am the only Freeman of the City who has led a Sunderland Flying Boat under Tower Bridge.
The aircraft stayed moored opposite the Tower of London, on the river in a place which is now overlooked by the new London County Hall, for about three months until it was bought by Kermit Weeks, an American millionaire who has a collection of vintage aircraft at his airfield and flying boat base at Oshkosh, to which the aircraft was finally flown. I believe it is still there but do not know whether it is still airworthy. Probably not.
Published by kind permission of Wing Commander Derek Martin, OBE, MID, BSc. author of “The Webfooted Guinea Pig” (2000).
Footnote: According to American sources, considerable restoration had been completed on the Sunderland in UK before Edward Hulton sold the aircraft to Kermit Weeks in February 1993 and just a few months after 'Hurricane Andrew' had damaged most exhibits of the Weeks Air Museum in 1992. The museum was rebuilt and remained there until Mr. Weeks moved his ever-growing collection to Polk County, Florida, and where he was able to expand onto 1300 acres and create his newer “Fantasy of Flight” exhibition.
In July1993, Kermit Weeks and a crew of five flew the Sunderland across the Atlantic making stops in Ireland, Iceland and Canada. The Sunderland was flown directly to the 1993 Oshkosh Fly-In in Wisconsin and was left there for another year while the seaplane ramp was being constructed at ‘Fantasy of Flight.’ The Sunderland arrived in Florida in August 1994 and in 1996, the Sunderland was flown to Sarasota, where it participated in the Olympic Torch relay to Atlanta by flying the Torch from Sarasota to Miami on 4th of July.