The Saunders-Roe Princess
The Princess – Luxury Travel
The Saunders-Roe (SR.45) was to have epitomised luxury travel, there had been a number of desing studies before and during the second world war. And in 1947 the Pricess design was effectively finalised. This would be the largest all metal flying boat ever built, it would carry 100 passengers in luxury from Southampton to New York.Power would be provided by 10 Bristol Proteus engines in six installations, four coupled and two single.
After significant delays with the engine and ballooning costs, the prototype G-ALUN took to the air. As to be expected there were teething troubles, but more of an issue was the way the expectations for air travel had changed. The De Havilland Comet was already in production, the Boeing 707 was in build – jet transportation had arrived.
An Aviation Lesson – Times Change
In the inter war years, long distance flying was luxurious and dominated by the flying boat. Nearly all intercontinental routes were flown by the flying boat, few realised that the second world war would change that for ever. The war time requirement for larger aircraft with longer ranges and heavier payloads, meant that the days of the flying boat were numbered.
All the way from the first world war to the end of the second world war, the flying boat had a leading role in aviation. From mail planes through, air sea rescue and maritime patrol the sea plane or flying boat was pre-eminent. But during the second world war, literally thousands of runways were laid down in all parts of the world, followed by a huge surplus of cheap and readilly available planes and pilots.
It should have been apparent that the writing was on the wall, but Saunders-Roe pushed ahead with the Princess in anticipation of the expected upturn in the luxury travel market.
The War Legacy
After the second world war Great Britain was to put it bluntly, broke. The cost of the war had been staggering, with Britain running up huge debts. The Government of the day was in no position to fund anything, let alone a flying boat with potentially no market and no customers. There was talk of trooping requirements at the time, but there were other means of moving troops.
There were post war flying boat services operated by BOAC, formed by the merger of Imperial and British Airways. These services didn’t continue for long after the war years. A number of other companies did operate flying boat services in South America and the Pacific, noteably PanAm. Although it was just a matter of time before nearly all commercial passenger traffic, would cease for the flying boats.
It was in this environment that Saunders-Roe decided to press ahead with the Princess, to give some context. The Princess was nearly as large as the early model Boeing 747’s, it had a range in excess of 5000 miles. Was capable of flying at 40,000 feet and at 380 Kts, but didn’t have any cofirmed customers. The development costs soared, from £2.6 Million to £10.5 Million.
There was support from the Ministry of Supply, but that was only for the initial build. The British aviation industry was at its zenith, the Princess is testimony to that being almost 100% indigenous.
The World Moved On
The world had moved on, the large flying boat was now in its swan song. Like the airship, the potential for the flying boat was for the most part gone. The customers who had expressed an interest, now focused on the newer jet aircraft. Most large cities had a local airport, the infrastructure was already there for the land planes and there was no need to invest in infrastructure for flying boats. And so it was that the Pricess was relegated to a could have been.
Although there were a number of attempts to make something of the one that had been built and the two near completion, corrosion got the better of them and they were all scrapped in the late 1960’s.