BRITISH FLYING BOAT FLEET

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26986, 11 March 1953, Page 11

BRITISH FLYING BOAT FLEET

Possible Purchase By N.A.T.O. Powers (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, March 10. Britain’s ‘‘white elephant” fleet, of 11 Solent flying-boats may become a troop-carrying reserve for the N.A.T.O. Powers, says the “Daily Express.” “The Civil Aviation Ministry re-’ cently instructed International Air Sales, a firm registered in Tangier, to act as brokers for the sale of the £2,000,000 fleet now tied up in Northern Ireland. “The Government, which paid £150,000 for each machine, first put the ’planes on offer two years ago at the bargain price of £35,000 each. There were no takers. So all the 11, built between 1948 and 1950 by Shorts were to be scrapped. One reason why no bid was made was that International Air Sales bought two-thirds of all the spares essential to keep the fleet in the air. Now the N.A.T.O. countries have put in tentative offers to buy the Solents and pay in dollars.” The “Daily Express” adds that •an executive of International Air Sales has admitted there has been criticism of his firm’s “corner” in spares. The “Financial Times” suggests that the buying of Solents is also under consideration by Britavia, a parent company of Silver City Airways, which operates a cross-Channel car ferry, for undertaking Government troop-carry-ing contracts chiefly across the Atlantic. It says the same company is also interested in operating the giant Saunders-Roe Princess flying-boats, both for passenger-carrying and troop transport.