Date:	Tuesday 15 July 1947
Time:	day
Type:	Short S.45 Seaford
Owner/operator:	MAEE (Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment)
Registration:	MZ269
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 6
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Felixstowe Harbour, Suffolk -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Taxi
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	Felixstowe Harbour, Suffolk
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
In 1942, the Air Ministry issued Specification R.8/42 for a replacement of the Sunderland, as a long range patrol bomber for service in the Pacific Ocean. It required more powerful engines, better defensive armament, and other enhancements. The Short S.45 Seaford flying boat, designed as a long range maritime patrol bomber for RAF Coastal Command. It was developed from the Short S.25 Sunderland, and initially ordered as "Sunderland Mark IV".

The Sunderland Mark IV used major structural elements of the Sunderland Mark III, with a fuselage stretch of 3 ft ahead of the wing, an extended and redesigned planing bottom, the same wing with thicker Duralumin skinning, and Bristol Hercules engines. Further structural changes were made after initial flight tests. The planned armament consisted of two fixed forward-firing .303 inch (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the nose, a Brockhouse Engineering nose turret with twin .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns, twin 20 mm Hispano cannon mounted in a Bristol B.17 dorsal turret, twin .50 in (12.7 mm) guns in a Glenn-Martin tail turret, and another .50 in (12.7 mm) machine gun in a hand-held waist position on each side of the fuselage. The turrets were all electrically powered. Two prototypes and thirty production aircraft were ordered as the Sunderland Mark IV.

On 30 August 1944, the prototype (MZ269) first flew from the River Medway at Rochester. The increased engine power caused aerodynamic stability problems, and a new fin was designed with greater height with forward dorsal extension, plus a new tailplane with increased span and area. Changes were so extensive, that the new aircraft was given the name Seaford.

MZ269, the first prototype Short S.45 Seaford was written off after an incident on 15 July 1947 at Felixstowe Harbour, Suffolk, when the starboard outer engine caught fire while the aircraft was taxiing, and conducting "propeller spray measuring" trials. The fire took hold to the extent that the engine was destroyed, and the engine mountings were also destroyed, causing the starboard outer engine to fall out. There were no reported fatalities or injuries to the crew, but the aircraft was struck off charge as "damaged beyond repair"

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.65. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Seaford
3. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/29/W2385: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578231
4. Flight magazine January 3rd 1946 pages 8-10: https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1946/1946%20-%200018.html?search=Short%20Seaford
5. https://www.seawings.co.uk/images/Articles/Seaford%20S45%20P1%20to4.PDF
6. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_short_sunderland_IV_seaford.html

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
25-Nov-2019 21:19	Dr. John Smith	Added