The Wight Aviation Museum celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the maiden flight of the Saunders-Roe ‘Princess’ flying boat G-ALUN on the weekend of 20th/21st August.
The Saunders-Roe SR.45 Princess was a British flying boat aircraft developed and built by Saunders-Roe at their Cowes facility on the Isle of Wight. It has the distinction of being the largest all-metal flying boat to have ever been constructed. Of the 3 prototypes built, only 1, G-ALUN, actually flew, making 47 test flights in 1952, including 2 appearances at the Farnborough Airshow.
Sadly shortly after these flights, the project was abandoned and none of the 3 aircraft built survive today.
Standing on the top deck of the open top bus loaned to the Wight Aviation Museum by the Isle of Wight Bus Museum, many of the museum’s visitors marvelled at the sheer size of the gigantic Saunders-Roe ‘Princess’ Flying Boat, marked out in bright yellow paint on the green outside the museum hangar this weekend at Sandown Airport.
Helen Blake, chairperson of WAM, enthused:
“The WAM team worked really hard to create an interesting and nostalgic display with the giant plan on the green, the “Princess” display in the museum and more information, pictures and videos in the ‘OPS Room’ which resulted in an interesting weekend out for the hundred and more visitors.”
The museum is open to all visitors on Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays from 10:00 to 15:00 each day. Further information about other events throughout the summer may be found at the Wight Aviation Museum website https://wightaviationmuseum.org.uk/ and the Sandown Airport website http://www.eghn.org.uk/.
