G-AGVD  Short S.40 Shetland 2                                   (c/n   S.1313)

                                     

                                            Design of a Sunderland replacement was actually begun before the outbreak of WW II.  The
                                            resultant design was undertaken in conjunction with, and cooperation from, Saunders-Roe. 
                                            As a result two prototyes of the Shetland were laid down.  The war interrupted development
                                            of these machines, which had military serials DX166 and DX171.  After the war it was decided
                                            to converted the second machine to a civilian transport (the first was inadvertently destroyed
                                            when it caught fire at its moorings at Felixstowe after a rating accidentally left a primus stove
                                            burning!).  By 1949 however the airlines were convinced that landplanes were the solution to
                                            long range air transport, causing the Shetland to be scrapped in 1951.