ML824

Shorts launched ML824 at Queen's Island, Belfast, in June 1944 as a Mk III and converted it to Mk V standard before delivery. On 11 February 1945 it joined No. 201 Squadron at Castle Archdale as NS-Z, the squadron's first Mk V. It flew ten anti-submarine patrols and one convoy escort, and once depth-charged a fresh oil slick.

In April 1945 it moved to No. 330 (Norwegian) Squadron at Sullom Voe, becoming WH-T. Its last operational patrol, off Norway, was on 13 May 1945. After an engine fire in northern Norway it was flown back on three engines and stored at Alness, then Wig Bay.

Shorts overhauled it in 1951 and it went to the French Aéronavale, flying mostly from Dakar, Senegal, with several flotilles until 1960. When the French learned of a British campaign to save a Sunderland, they gave ML824 to the new Sunderland Trust. A French crew flew it from Brest to Pembroke Dock on 24 March 1961, escorted by two 201 Squadron Shackletons.

It stood in the dockyard there, open to visitors in summer, until the Trust handed it to the RAF Museum in January 1971. The hull went by landing craft to Dagenham and by road to Hendon, knocking down traffic lights at Colindale. It was reassembled in 1976 and has been indoors since 1978, in the hall that is now Hangar 1. The lower deck opened to visitors in April 1995.

Sits in Hangar 1, the entrance hall, with a café beneath it. Visitors can usually go inside the lower deck, but the door is narrow and access is sometimes closed.