"I flew it on a routine flight around the dock and then moored it up. There was a gale during the night and it must have been holed by some floating debris and down it went. In the morning it wasnt there. Well, it was at the bottom of the sea."
- RAF Wing Commander Derek Martin OBE, the last pilot to have flown Sunderland T9044 of No 210 Squadron, RAF, the flying boat raised in December 2013

The Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force (RAF) by Short Brothers. It took its service name from the town (later, city) and port of Sunderland in northeast England.

Based in part upon the S.23 Empire flying boat, the flagship of Imperial Airways, the S.25 was extensively re-engineered for military service. It was one of the most powerful and widely used flying boats throughout the Second World War, and was involved in countering the threat posed by German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic. RAF Sunderlands also saw service throughout the Korean War and continued in service until 1959. It also took part in the Berlin airlift. Sunderlands remained in service with the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) until 1967.

Sunderlands converted for civil use, known as Short Sandringhams, continued in airline operation until 1974. A single airworthy example remains on display in Florida at Fantasy of Flight. A sunken Mark I Sunderland, identified as the Sunderland T9044 of No 210 Squadron, RAF, was discovered in 2000 off the coast of Wales; there are plans to raise it in the near future.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a RAAF Short Sunderland flying boat that was attached to No.461 Squadron, then deployed to Hamworthy Junction, England, during 1943. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 18-3/4-inches
Length: 14-1/4-inches

Release Date: October 2015

Historical Account: "Raising the Sunderland" - Built at Short Brothers in Kent, Sunderland EJ134 joined No.461 Squadron RAAF on December 31st, 1942, at Hamworthy Junction in Dorset. On June 2nd, 1943, with its famous call sign "N for Nuts" and piloted by Flight Lt. Colin Walker, it set out over the Bay of Biscay conducting a routine anti-submarine patrol. The crew had been ordered to look out for survivors of a KLM civil airliner when they came under fire by no fewer than eight Junkers JU 88s of the Luftwaffes 13/KG40 in what was to be the first of at least twenty separate attacks that would last forty-five minutes. The aircraft was severely damaged from the attacks, but it had a trick up its sleeve in its two 50. caliber machine guns and shot down at least three of the enemy aircraft before the crew navigated the dying plane back to Britain where they ditched just off the beach of Praa Sands.