The shorts sunderland was one of the finest flying boats ever built and it served with the royal air force coastal command for 21 years developed from the empire class flying boats the short sunderland was first used by the raf in 1938 and it gave outstanding service throughout wwii flying maritime reconnaissance convoy escort and anti submarine missions over the atlantic and indian oceans the north sea and the mediterranean it had an endurance in excess of 13 hoursmodel scale172number of pa