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The Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force (RAF) by Short Brothers. It took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of Sunderland in northeast England. Based in part upon the S.23 ''Empire'' flying boat, the flagship of Imperial Airways, the S.25 was extensively re-engineered for military service. It was one of the most powerful and widely used flying boats throughout the Second World War,〔Eden 2004, p. 442.〕 and was involved in countering the threat posed by German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic. RAF Sunderlands also saw service throughout the Korean War and continued in service until 1959. It also took part in the Berlin airlift. Sunderlands remained in service with the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) until 1967. Sunderlands converted for civil use, known as Short Sandringhams, continued in airline operation until 1974. A single airworthy example remains on display in Florida at Fantasy of Flight.〔(Fantasy of Flight )〕 ==Development== The early 1930s saw intense competition in developing long-range intercontinental passenger service between the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany, but the United Kingdom had no equivalent to the new American Sikorsky S-42 flying boats or the German Dornier Do X. However, in 1934, the British Postmaster General declared that all first-class Royal Mail sent overseas was to travel by air, establishing a subsidy for the development of intercontinental air transport in a fashion similar to the U.S. domestic program a decade earlier. In response, Imperial Airways announced a competition to design and produce 28 flying boats, each weighing and having a range of with a capacity for 24 passengers. The contract went to Short Brothers of Rochester and while the first example of the new type, the S.23 Empire was under development,〔 the British Air Ministry was taking actions that would result in a military version. The 1933 Air Ministry Specification R.2/33 called for a next-generation flying boat for ocean reconnaissance. The new aircraft had to have four engines but could be either a monoplane or biplane design. Specification R.2/33 was released roughly in parallel with the Imperial Airways requirement, and while Short continued to develop the S.23, it also worked on a response to R.2/33 at a lower priority. Chief Designer Arthur Gouge originally intended that a 37 mm COW gun be mounted in the bow with a single Lewis gun in the tail. As with the S.23, he tried to make the drag as low as possible, while the nose was much longer than that of the S.23.〔 The military flying boat variant was designated S.25 and the design was submitted to the Air Ministry in 1934. Saunders-Roe also designed a flying boat, the Saro A.33, in response to the R.2/33 competition, and prototypes of both the S.25 and A.33 were ordered by the Ministry for evaluation. The initial S.25 prototype first took flight in October 1937.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Short Sunderland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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