Vanderbilt Cup Races

This weekend's flying boat/seaplane of the week is the historic Empire S-23 C-Class Caledonia (G-ADHM) built by the Short Brothers based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

This flying boat was built for Imperial Airways, an early British commercial airline from 1924 to 1939, which later merged into BOAC and then British Airways. Ten years after Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, the Caledonia and the Pan American S-42 B  Clipper III jointly made the first transatlantic commercial "survey" flights to and from Port Washington on July 5 to 6, 1937.   As noted in this article "How Port Washington Gave Birth to Pan Am", survey flights "was the official term used to describe the testing of heretofore unchartered air routes."

Wikipedia describes the flights as follows: On July  5, 1937, the first crossing of the Atlantic by an Empire flying boat was conducted. On an experimental basis, Caledonia, piloted by Captain W N Cummings, flew a 1,993 miles (3,207 km) route from Foynes on the River Shannon west to Botwood, Newfoundland. On the same day, an American Sikorsky S-42 flying boat flew the opposite direction. Caledonia took just over 15 hours (including a period spend searching for a landing spot), flying at an altitude of 1,500 to 5,000 ft (460 to 1,520 m) to cover 1,993 miles (3,207 km)—an average speed of about 130 mph (210 km/h). On its return flight, conducted on July 22, 1937, Caledonia flew the same route in the opposite direction in a time of 12 hours; in comparison to the competing Sikorsky S-42, the Empire was able to traverse the overall route faster.

Many of the never-before-published images in this post were made available from  Beutenmiller Family Collection.

Beutenmuller Family Collection

William Beutenmuller (1915-1987) worked  as a mechanic, flight mechanic and foreman of maintenance for various Long Island aviation firms including the Port Washington Marine Base, Grumman Engineering and the Sperry Gyroscope Company. He trained with Wright Aeronautical Corp, Pratt & Whitney, Allison and Sikorsky aircraft and engines. In 1957, William joined Radio Corporation of America in New Castle, Delaware working with company and military aircraft. He documented many of the airplanes that he worked on and observed and also collected photos from other seaplane and airplane enthusiasts of the period.

Jennifer Robinson, William's granddaughter, has scanned almost hundreds of negatives from the family collection and has graciously agreed to share them on VanderbiltCupRaces.com . Many of these historic images will be posted over the next few months with additional background on the amazing career of William Beutenmuller.

Be Safe, Stay Healthy, Save Lives,

Howard Kroplick