The great strength of the flying boats was their ability to use the lakes and oceans of the world to land whichever way the wind was blowing. This was valuable in an age when there were not enough land runways long enough to cope with the large aircraft that growing commercial airlines needed. Although this strength didn’t change the emphasis after the war began to move towards developing land-based aircraft services.

Circe taking off

In the post-war era, ex-military bases had the concrete runways that could be used to develop a network of airports all over the country. New airports were being opened in places like Luton and Manchester and this meant that passengers no longer had to travel down to the South Coast to catch their flight. A large amount of land planes had made it through the war and the airlines felt it was natural to restart services using these converted military planes, like the Douglas C-47 Dakota.

Flying boat services were viewed as a restriction to the growth of Britain's commercial aviation industry. Most countries had ceased to use flying boats as their land airports were developed. Britain's remaining marine airline Aquila, struggled to cover the costs of

Mail being loaded

maintaining their bases abroad as foreign companies pulled out. The flying boats themselves had become increasingly expensive to run and spare parts became harder to find as manufacture stopped. The development of the land based aviation routes signalled the end to the use of the graceful flying boats for commercial passenger flights. The Saunders Roe Princess was a dream that came too late and of the hundreds of flying boats built by Shorts of Rochester for both military and civil purposes, only a small number now survive in museums.

Post war move

Aquila Airways

A last hope?

Why did it end