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| | The Short Sunderland Flying Boat |
 | | The design he produced, the Short "S.23", was a clean and elegant aircraft, with a wingspan of 35 meters (114 feet), a length of 27 meters (88 feet), an empty weight of 10.9 tonnes (24,000 pounds), and a loaded weight of 18.4 tonnes (40,500 pounds). |
 | | Of course, the Sunderland was not a luxury liner like the Empire boats, but it had a number of niceties useful for keeping its crew of seven in comfortable during long and exhausting ocean patrols and operations from remote locations, such as six bunks and a galley with a stove. |
 | | While Sunderlands could suppress flak to an extent by hosing down the U-boat with their nose-turret guns, the U-boats had the edge by far in range and hitting power, although many Sunderlands were field fitted with four fixed 7.7 millimeter machine guns to improve their ability to hit back. |
| www.faqs.org /docs/air/avsund.html (4756 words) |
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