RCAF-Sunderland-MkX-02 by Big Gimper
Yeah, about that...
Not sure how much work you want to do, or what kind of back story you're going to write, but here's a little info on the Sunderland, and why that arrangement could lead to some... 'interesting' times.
The prototype Sunderland MkI, K4774, had straight wings. Flew nicely. Then someone decided to add a stinger in the tail; a 4 gun Frazer-Nash turret. The weight of that shifted the C of G rearward, and the solution to that problem was to sweep back the wing leading edge to 4°, and it worked, but engine mounts remained in place, so that they were all now pointing 4° outwards. This introduced a quirk that new pilots had to used to. When there was a sudden reduction on the throttles, the nose of the aircraft momentarily pitched UP, rather than the customary down. Gentle use of the throttle was therefore needed on take-off and landing to prevent the possibility of contacting the water and 'porpoising'. With the added power of turbo-prop engines, that may be of greater concern.
Most people wouldn't know that, so you can probably ignore it. But I'm sure my dad would smile a bit!
