Developed as a long range maritime reconnaissance flying boat, the Short Sunderland was widely used during the Second World War. New Zealand purchased four Sunderlands in early 1944 for use as transport aircraft but did not receive them until the end of that year. They were operated by the Flying Boat Transport Flight of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) from February 1945, carrying cargo and repatriated New Zealand military personnel from the South Pacific back to New Zealand. They soon began carrying paying passengers and in late 1947 the Sunderlands were transferred to the New Zealand National Airways Corporation.
The RNZAF acquired 16 more Sunderlands in 1953 and these equipped Nos. 5 and 6 Squadrons, operating from Fiji and New Zealand respectively, to carry out maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols. The Fiji-based aircraft were also used for search and rescue missions. Some Sunderlands were also used by the RNZAF's Maritime Operational Conversion Unit, based at Hobsonville in Auckland, New Zealand. Considered to be obsolete by 1960, they began to be withdrawn from service a few years later. The last operational flight for a Sunderland of the RNZAF was in April 1967. The majority were scrapped although two still survive, one as an exhibit at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland, New Zealand, and the other in the collection of aviation enthusiast Kermit Weeks.
Background
The Short Sunderland, officially the Short S.25 Sunderland, was designed by Short Brothers as a development of the civilian Short Empire flying boats that was used by Imperial Airways in the 1930s. The Sunderland, of which around 750 were built from 1937 to 1945, first entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in June 1938 equipping No. 230 Squadron. It went on to serve in the Far East, Mediterranean, Africa, the Pacific as well as in Europe.
Intended as a long range maritime reconnaissance-bomber, in its standard configuration the Sunderland was powered by four 1,200 horsepower Pratt & Whitney engines and had a crew of ten. Its top speed was but cruised at . With a bomb load of just over , it had a range of about . Its wingspan was while the hull was long and deep. The aircraft was heavily armed, with ten machine guns in total. Two of these were in a forward powered turret while four were in the tail turret. A machine gun was provided to the port and starboard sides at the beam and four were fixed firing forward. It also carried up to in bombs and/or depth charges. On account of its defensive armament, the Sunderland became known as the 'Flying Porcupine' to the Germans.
Sunderland Mk III
At the start of 1944, the Empire of Japan was no longer the dominant force in the South Pacific that it had been and the British government was beginning to consider the postwar outlook for the region. The United States already had airfields on several islands in the area that could be used as the basis for commercial flight operations by civilian aircraft but the British lacked an equivalent land presence to achieve this. This led towards the British favouring flying boats as the basis for commercial operations since less land infrastructure, particularly runways, would be required.
On 27 January, the British government offered New Zealand the opportunity to purchase four Short Sunderland Mk III transport flying boats, to be operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF). The asking price was £60,000 each, which was considered to be very cost-effective. The New Zealand government agreed, also buying £80,000 of equipment to support the Sunderlands, which was envisaged to form the basis of a transport service in the South Pacific. The purchase met some resistance; it had to be approved by the Combined Munitions Assignment Board. The American representatives on the board, concerned about how the aircraft could be the basis for commercial operations in the South Pacific after the war, initially declined to approve the purchase but then indicated they would allow it to proceed if the commander-in-chief South Pacific Area Vice-Admiral J. H. Newton, decided the aircraft was needed in his theatre of operations. The Chief of Air Staff in New Zealand, Air Vice-Marshal Leonard Isitt, obtained approval from Newton for the purchase on the justification that they were needed for military use. However, there was still ongoing sensitivity around the purchase and Isitt asked that there be little publicity of the purchase so as to avoid an impact on the allocation of American aircraft to the RNZAF.