Flying Boats, the British Queen

As you have surely noticed, I am interested in large flying boats; the Martin Mars, the Spruce Goose, the Pam Am Clippers, and I just now ran across this one. I guess part of the reason is the romance of it . . . they all were born just as the need for passenger seaplanes was dying.

It wasn't the jet engine that killed these beauties as many believe. That came a few years later. Rather, it was the sudden availability of airports directly following WW II. Sounds odd but as countries around the world became liberated, commerce followed and airports with it. Range improved as well and craft that could land on oceans and lakes just didn't fit the bill anymore.

So the Princess (which was based on hopes that BOAC would buy them for trans-oceanic passenger service) lost the race to aircraft like this Boeing 377 Stratocruiser.

Here is an article I found on the web:

Sounders Roe SARO SR.45 "Princess"
In May 1946, work began on Saunders-Roe's largest flying boat, the Princess. She was a two-decked, ten-engined flying boat, weighing
154 tons, and three were built. She was designed to carry a maximum of 220 passengers, and in August, 1952, she flew for the first time.
She was supposed to just undergo taxiing trials that day, yet the test-pilot took off after a very short run-up'. The Princess was the
largest metal flying boat ever made and it flew on numerous occasions, including the Farnborough air display of 1952. However,BOAC the intended customer, did not want them as its flying boat services had ended in 1950. Another problem were the engines, which were not as efficient as they could be. All of the three Princess flying boats were scrapped in Southampton.

Note: TEN engines. The four inboard ones were 'coupled', meaning two separate engines drove two counter-rotating propellers, one engine to each prop, very high tech in those days.

I well appreciate that this comes over as a gear-head article. Still, there is romance in the era. Those Pan Am Clippers have an aura still, in fact there used to be a museum on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay with Clipper memorabilia that I visited once. Clippers used to land and depart from there on their runs to Hawaii and Hong Kong. I think the museum is gone now too, though.