Saunders-Roe SR.45 Princess — only 100 hours of flight time but what a 100!
Saunders-Roe SR.45 Princess — only 100 hours of flight time but what a 100!
One of the three Saunders-Roe SR.45 Princess flying boats and the only one to fly G-ALUN, the largest metal construction flying boat to grace the skies — San Diego Air Space Museum archive photo
Only three of these double bubble pressurized fuselage flying boats left the factory and only one ever flew, G-ALUN , but it flew into history as one of the last large flying boats as well as the only large flying boat which was pressurized. Ten engines powered the Princess for a scant 100 hours in the air with an estimated performance of 360 mph/579kph at 32,500 feet/9906m for a range of 5720 miles/9205m on with flights lasting as long as 15 hours. Quite respectable in 1952!
Saunders-Roe SR.45 Princess with all ten engines burning — eight Bristol Coupled-Proteus 610 turboprop engines in four pairs (note the counter-rotating propellers) and two Bristol Proteus 600 turboprop engines (one in each outboard position and each 25% stronger than a 610) — San Diego Air Space Museum archive photo
Saunders-Roe SR.45 Princess with wingtip floats retracted for a 219′ 6″/66.9m wingspan and two deck 148 feet/48m long pressurized fuselage with room for 105 passengers and 6 crew — San Diego Air Space Museum archive photo
Travel for Aircraft 
Always something pretty amazing about these big flying boats
Always amazing about these big flying- blue bird flight Academy has worlds best aircraft’s.
At least two of the three SR.45s were moored in the Solent for a time. At least one bid for them was received before they were scrapped.
Alas 😦