Which in your opinion was a better plane for the Maritime Recon and patrol role -
Short Sunderland: a plane with a 2980mile range, 14 defensive guns (and room for depth charges and radar fitting), heavy armour plating, a max height of 17,000ft and a max speed of 217mph...the Germans called it the 'Flying Porcupine' because of the sheer number of weapons it had and its ability to survive against overwhealming odds- A sunderland was once attacked (while staionary) by two patrolling Ju88s - one 88 was shot down and the other badly damaged and retreated. It was used effectively to patrol the seas and detect and sink submarines..it was also used as a resuce plane
The Catalina had a range of 2545miles, 4 defensive machine guns and 4000lbs of bombs, mines and depth charges. a max height of 14,700ft and a max speed of 179mph. Given the name 'catalina' by the RAF who were so impressed with the aircraft they ordered 50 of them from the US in 1939. They were used by many countries over the world including Australia, Canada, East Indies and France (
) Later models were fitted with Radar and some of these were even shipped to the USSR in their efforts against the Germans.
All in all these planes were both excellent at what they did and i often think of them as both 'unsung heroes' as you don't often hear about them in the history books..in fact i hate to compare them but i would be interested in what you guys think...cheers
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