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Talchotali
Capt. Marvel's Wise Friend
I stand corrected. Thank you sir.
Beaching trucks are shown
The Mars has beaching trucks that can be attached to facilitate out of water maintenance.
If you saw a Shorts land at Fantasy of Flight, then you likely saw one of the last flights of the last airworthy Shorts Sandringham.
The Sandringham is a Shorts Sunderland configured for passenger use. Many late military specification aircraft were converted after the war.
A funny story: a friend of a roommate in college filled out his required co-piloting hours right seating on the last passenger Short Sandringhams flown by Antilles Air Boats in the mid 1970's. Not because he wanted to be one of the last pilots to helm a large flying boat, but because he needed to build multi-engine hours quickly to get a job flying 727s for FEDEX. (I think actually Antilles was the only job offer he had.)
The last two flying passenger Sandringhams were released by Ansett in 1973 (named at the time Beachcomer and Islander). These aircraft had been used for flights from Sydney to Lord Howe Island. These aircraft were purchased by Charles F. Blair Jr. (Maureen O'Hara's husband, pictured below) and flew for several seasons with Antilles Air Boats. Blair was sadly killed in a Grumman Goose in 1978, and O'Hara ran the company until it was sold a year later.
That's Islander above, renamed Excalibur VIII (all Blair's favorite aircraft were named Excalibur)
Islander was converted to a "business" specification by Edward Hulton in the UK in 1979 and renamed Spirit of Foynes. This is the aircraft acquired in 1993 by Kermit Weeks for the Fantasy of Flight museum and US registered as N814ML.
Beachcomber was purchased for the National Aeronautical Collection in 1981 by the British Science Museum and is now on display at the Solent Sky museum in Southampton, Hampshire, UK. (Unclear, but I think it was delivered by ship disassembled and not flown).
Our friend came back from his exotic summer work experience in the Antilles, picked up his two-stroke SAAB Sonnet (stored in the garage) and drove to Memphis. He flew for FEDEX for the rest of his career.
SloopJonB
Super Anarchist
The side fell off.
Liquid
NFLTG
^ Double ejection
WTF? Airplane parts flying off...
Google wasn't helpful to me.