The Short S.8 Calcutta was manufactured by the British firm Short Brothers based in Rochester. Powered by a trio of Bristol Jupiter IXF radial engines, it first took flight on 14 February 1928. This aircraft has the distinction of being the first stressed skin metal hulled flying boat.
Designed to be operated by three crew, the aircraft carried up to 15 passengers over a range of 1,050km (650 miles). Noteworthy is the fact it featured an open cockpit, very much the flying goggles and leather jacket era! Slow by today’s standards, it cruised at a stately 156km/h, 97mph or 84 knots.
Short S.8 Calcutta Video
Following on from the last video about the Boeing 747-400, this time we head back across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom. The first video runs for 58 seconds (with no footage from 6-19 seconds) showing the type’s initial flight. Overlook the massive Reuters watermarks for the film’s rarity.
Our next video runs for around three minutes and is pretty bad quality, but still worth a look. This one shows people boarding the aircraft and it taking off and landing.
It would be lovely to see these in a restored status, but considering they’re almost a century old, it’s great that we have them at all. I imagine seeing these new planes at the time would have been very exciting.
Overall Thoughts
The Short S.8 Calcutta flying boat entered service in 1928 with Imperial Airways for their route between the UK and India. The S.8 was assigned to the Mediterranean to Karachi portion of the route.
Seven aircraft were produced in total and the final two were withdrawn from use in 1937. It was a relatively short career, but technology was advancing quickly during this era, making types like this obsolete.
What do you think of the Short S.8 Calcutta videos? Did you know this plane even existed? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via Short S.8 Calcutta on Aircraft Investigation.
