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Aviation history ; Short C class Empire flying boat links page
I would be happy to exchange similar links. 


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Go to Home Page for free download of my book Flying Empires & details of aircraft drawings.

Len Whalley has a collection of aircraft drawings that he has scanned. Copies are available for sale.

Some of the of drawings available from Len Whalley.

Aircraft Scale Drawings

This page is intended to be a comprehensive guide to possible sources for aircraft scale drawings.

The drawings featured here are intended principally for plastic scale modellers, as 'scale' drawings for Radio-Controlled or Free-Flight model aircraft have usually been bastardised in some way to allow the fitment of an engine or to improve the aircraft's flying qualities - hence they don't represent the full-size aircraft.

Czech Master Resin - 1/72nd Scale Aircraft

CMR-200  Short S.23 "C-Class" Empire Flying Boat

Complete Airframe
Highly-detailed Cockpit interior
Painted 'Photo-Etch' Cockpit detailing set
Detailed 'Bristol Perseus' Radial Engines
Glazed Passenger Cabin Windows
Optional Floats (2 types) 5,000lb buoyancy and 6,000lb buoyancy (S.23 'Atlantic' boat) versions
Beaching Gear
Rigging diagram for Floats and Aerials
Assembly and Painting Instructions
Paint Mask Cockpit Canopy Frame and full Passenger Cabin Windows
Photographic 'In Detail' Supplement
Brief history of the type and individual aircraft
Decal Set
CMR Models

The SEAWINGS web site specialises in providing information for the scale modeller in the form of historic photographs, plans and articles detailing the construction of 1/72nd scale models of various types, together with close-up photographic 'walk-rounds' of some of the surviving examples and many other reference details.  Photographs of the Empire 'boats has recently been added.  See links at the bottom of the page.  Seawings

If  you wish to see what a really expert model maker can do with the drawings - go to Geoff Reichelt's Page & link through to his Model Page. He has a 1:10 flying scale model Empire on the stocks. Geoff Reichelt's Page

Qantas Founders Museum
Longreach Queensland Australia

The QANTAS Founders Outback Museum (QFOM) was founded to honour the achievements of a group of remarkable men, telling the story up
to 1936. They established a company that grew to become a recognised leader in the field of world aviation, while making an enormous contribution to the people living in the isolated communities in the Australian Outback. The Museum was established in 1988. The visionary foresight of the local community culminated in 1996 in the opening of Stage 1 in the original QANTAS hangar at Longreach. QFOM is directed by a voluntary board & Stage 1 was funded by many individuals & organizations such as Boeing, British Aerospace, Westpac, Ford, QANTAS (cash & kind & the Avro 504 replica), Longreach Shire Council & the Queensland Government. QFOM has commissioned several models of past aircraft operated by QANTAS & has a full-sized de Havilland DH 61 biplane replica on display. The Museum is continuing to augment the collection with a recently acquired Boeing 747 (open to the public) & hopes to complete the whole story.

The Solent Sky depicts the history of aviation in the Solent area and Hampshire. This small geographical area was arguably the most important area in the world for aircraft experimental and development work also for civil and military aircraft operation. The Museum tells the story of 26 aircraft companies, the largest flying boat operation in the world and in particular the legendary Spitfire designed at Supermarine by R.J.Mitchell in the heart of the City of Southampton. Solent Sky

The Museum's Short Solent

The Oakland Aviation Museum
The Oakland Aviation Museum was founded in 1981 as a non-profit organization under IRS Code 501 C (3). In 1988, the Museum was granted Stewardship of the historic Boeing School of Aeronautics hangar built in 1939, by the Port of Oakland. The hangar serves as the primary facility of the Museum, providing indoor and outdoor exhibition space, an education room, a History Flicks room, a research library and aircraft restoration work areas.

www.oaklandaviationmuseum.org

The Foynes Flying Boat Museum...Recalling Aviation History

The Foynes Flying Boat Museum is dedicated to recalling that historic time from 1939 to 1945, when Foynes, Ireland, became the center of the aviation world. On July 9th 1939, Pan Am's luxury Flying Boat, the "Yankee Clipper" landed at Foynes. This was the first commercial passenger flight on a direct route from the USA to Europe. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, this quiet little town on the Shannon became the focal point for air traffic on the North Atlantic.

http://www.flyingboatmuseum.com

A set of nine colour photographs taken by Dmitri Kessel of the Short "C" class S.30 flying boat Clare at La Guardia Airport .

The best images seen so far.

Click the logo to go to the Google LIFE gallery.

Mr. Kessel was born in 1902 in the Russian Ukraine and immigrated to the United States in the 1920's.

During a 60-year career, Mr. Kessel worked as an industrial photographer, a war correspondent anhotographer, and a photo essayist for Life. During World War II, he sailed on convoy escorts in the North Atlantic, covered the landing of American troops in the Aleutian Islands and the British landing in Greece. He also photographed the Greek civil war.

Thirty Thousand Feet™ is an aviation directory with thousands of links to aviation web pages, aviation news, and other sources of commercial, military, and general aviation information.

Thirty Thousand Feet Aviation Directory

The Airways Museum & Civil Aviation Historical Society

The Airways Museum is an aviation museum, but with one difference - there are no aircraft! Instead, the Museum houses a collection of national importance that traces the development of Australia's civil aviation airways system through innovation and technical development from it's beginnings in the 1920s to today. The story is told through artefacts and photographs, and illustrates how Australia has often played a leading role internationally in aviation development.

Terence 'Terry' Lawless Duigan
From May 1940 to August 1945 'Terry' Duigan flew a total of 3380 hours on Empire 'boats, Catalinas & Liberators.  540 of those hours were on Short Empire Flying Boats.  

Terence Duigan Australian Aviation Hero

Aviation prints & paintings

Nikyla was born in Whyalla, South Australia and grew up in the beautiful & rugged Flinders Ranges. Art and its history always interested Nikyla, but it was in 1993 whilst on a working holiday in Europe that a true fascination was ignited and she found herself spending every available moment in Art Galleries & Museums. In 2004 Nikyla began working on her extraordinary aviation scenes covering both the commercial and private sectors of aviation within Australia and around the globe. Nikyla has also recently discovered a passion for painting portraits, her subjects to date include Aviation pioneer - Nancy Bird, Rugby league Legend - Shane Webcke, Hollywood Movie Star and Qantas Ambassador - John Travolta plus numerous private commissions.

Nikyla's aviation prints & paintings

Wikipedia
The Short Empire was a passenger and mail carrying flying boat, of the 1930s and 1940s, which flew between Britain and British colonies in Africa, Asia and Australia. It was manufactured by Short Brothers and was the precursor to the more famous Short Sunderland of World War II. In the United States, its contemporary was the Sikorsky S-42. Extracted from Wikipedia

Wikipedia flying boat page

Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company, usually referred to simply as Shorts, that is now based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1908, Shorts was the first true aviation company in the world, and was a manufacturer of flying boats during the 1920s and 1930s and throughout the Second World War.
Extracted from Wikipedia

Wikipedia Short Brothers page

The Short brothers founded Britain's first aircraft factory. In 1909 they were building their first six Short-Wright biplanes under license. The company later changed it's name to Short Brothers and Harland.

In 1897 brothers Eustace (1875-1932) and Oswald Short (1883-1970) began their collective aviation career as self-learned pilots of the coal-gas balloon. After a relatively short amateur ballooning career, in 1905, they provided three balloons by contract to the Indian army; shortly thereafter they found their way into the public sector of aviation, manufacturing balloons for other independent adventurers like themselves.

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Peter van Lune's  web site is dedicated to the world's first range of all plastic Penguin models, modelkits, issued between 1936-1949.  The site has full background information, photos of made up and unbuilt kits,
catalogues and Penguin related items, such as  recognition models made by Frog.

Peter van Lune

PortsandShips.com is a developing site aimed at all ages with an interest in ships, shipping & flying boats.

The Port of Southampton has been chosen as an example of the birth and development of a port from Roman times up to the present day. Southampton became known in ths 1930s as the 'Gateway to the World' becoming the UK base for Imperial Airways flying boat services and remains today as a major commercial port for containers, car handling, cargo and passengers.

Short 23, 30 and 33 Flying Boats carried passengers and mail on services that included New York, Bermuda, Africa, Egypt and Australia in the 1930s and 1940s. During World War II operations were transferred from Southampton to Poole, Dorset.

http://www.portsandships.com/Flying_Boat_Services

The Broome Flying Boats pdf
Papers relating to the nomination of a suite of flying boat wrecks in
Broome to the Register of Heritage Places under the
Heritage of Western Australia Act 1990
Compiled by
M.McCarthy, J. Green, S. Jung and C. Souter
This pdf comes from this Western Australian Museum web page, Report No. 170

http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/publications.asp

Looking for a great aviation or space read? Why not go directly to the source on an aviation writer's very own web-site:

Click here

Military aircraft links, tables & articles

Joe Baugher's primary interest is in military aviation, and so this page will point you to a lot of aviation links which he has found useful.