There's not much to be found on the seaplane variant.
Apparently for the Model 37, they tried looking into 5000hp gas turbines or diesels.
View attachment 706789
In my opinion, this version is more an exercise in style than a real commercial proposal. The seaplane at that time had already definitively lost the battle of long-haul commercial transport ... The big French flying boats as Laté 631 or SE.200 were totally obsolete after World War II ... even the most modern British Princess ... We can regret it because it was beautiful machines with a soul that probably does not have the current wide-body aircraft ...
 
Its a fine example of a circular argument. Part of the rationale for building the Brabazon and Princess was that the UK government and industry believed that the US was developing something similar, and then the US responds once they see the British plans. However, they had the sense to see the flaws in the concepts and take them no further while we did not.
 
Large, trans-oceanic flying boats were rendered obsolete by all the long concrete runways built by the US Navy, USAAF during World War 2 and the Cold War.
With half the empty weight of flying boats, land planes could range farther.
 
Large, trans-oceanic flying boats were rendered obsolete by all the long concrete runways built by the US Navy, USAAF during World War 2 and the Cold War.
With half the empty weight of flying boats, land planes could range farther.
Actually in this era there was no great difference in the estimated empty weight of flying boats and land airliners designed for long-range trans-oceanic routes. The key arguments against flying boats was that for point-to-point travel, say London to New York, they were fine but if transfer to another flight was required then you needed a conventional runway nearby. Not always feasible and an inevitable increase in facilities cost. On top of that if only one airline had flying boats in its fleet then the entire cost of these facilities; docks, service and patrol vessels, and so on, would have to be carried by them. On top of that you had higher service and maintenance costs and more. In Britain to-be BOAC, or at least most of the organisation, had reached this conclusion before the war but the constructors who specialised in flying boats lobbied hard. The Brabazon Committee were not convinced but the post-war government chose to give them a chance.
 

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom