Short Solent

The Short Solent is a British four-engine flying boat built by Short Brothers, entering commercial service in 1946 as a postwar civilian development of the wartime Short Sunderland military flying boat, adapted with a more spacious passenger cabin and improved amenities for long-distance airline service. Operated principally by Britain's national airline on routes to Africa and Australia, the Solent offered passengers a level of comfort, including a dedicated promenade deck and dining facilities, that reflected the flying boat's role as a premium mode of long-distance travel in the years immediately after the Second World War. The Solent's commercial career was relatively short, as postwar land-based airliners with greater range and lower operating costs made large flying boats increasingly uneconomical by the mid-1950s.