VP-TBB (2)   Short Sealand                                    (c/n  SH.1566)

                           
       
                               This aircraft is really G-AKLR masquerading as a fake VP-TBB seen here in flight in 1950 with the
                               with the starboard airscrew feathered to demonstrate its single engine capability.  BWIA had ordered
                               three of the amphibians ostensibly for some inter-island routes.  The trouble was, the airline didn't really
                               spec out with Shorts, when they ordered them, that they intended to operate the aircraft  from the open
                               sea (at least at St. Vincent and Dominica).   Clearly the craft was not designed with this in mind and,
                               although it was capable of operating out of fairly rough water, with fare paying passengers aboard
                               this was not considered (at least by Shorts) as being a very viable option at all.   And so the idea was
                               short-lived.  The two aircraft which had been painted in BWIA livery (VP-TBA, ex G-AKLP was the
                               other one) were returned to Shorts and never did fly schedules in the West Indies.  G-AKLR was later
                               sold in Yugoslavia as YU-CFJ.