Short Sandringham

The Short S.25 Sandringham is a British civilian flying boat designed and originally produced by Short Brothers as a conversion of the Short Sunderland maritime patrol aircraft. It followed the austere wartime Hythe conversions made for the British Overseas Airways Corporation, and the first prototype, a more refined conversion, flew in November 1945 as the Sandringham I. BOAC soon ordered it and the improved Sandringham II and later versions, which offered more comfortable accommodation for 24 day or 16 sleeper passengers. Other operators included TEAL, Qantas and Ansett. Land based airliners and jets outclassed it, services shrank in the late 1950s, and three are believed to survive in preservation.