history of the flying boat

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Juan Trippe and the Clipper

rise and fall of the flying boat

Soviet maritime patrol aircraft

the rise and fall of the Seaplane

Although Samuel Langley's ill-fated Aerodrome was catapulted to its doom from a houseboat on the Potomac a few weeks before the Wright's first flight at Kitty Hawk, it was March 28 1910 before an airplane took off from water for the first time. At the controls of the Canard was Henri Fabre, a 28-year old engineer from Marseilles. This was Fabre's first flight. The flight took place at Lake Berre near Martigues on the Mediterranean, where the fifty-horsepower Gnome rotary engine powered the 'hydravion' a 1650-foot distance over water.

The generally accepted father of the flying boat is Glen Curtiss, who flew a series of seaplanes in 1911, developed the first practical float plane in 1912 and produced over 7,000 JN Jenny's in World War I. Curtiss flying boats were the only US-designated airplanes to see combat service in World War I. In 1919 the Navy-Curtiss 4, a huge flying boat, made the first staged aerial crossing of the Atlantic a month before Alcock and Brown's non-stop flight.

In 1912 a French industrialist, Jacques Schneider, announced the Schneider Trophy, a seaplane competition to be held starting in 1913. The first team to win three races in five years would keep the trophy. Schneider hoped various clubs and individuals would enter the competition, but after World War I nationalism became the dominant force and when the series resumed in 1920 aircraft manufacturers' and governments' resources poured into the race and the aircraft took on more of a military nature. Schneider’s dream of seaplane development for commercial travel faded away and speed became the dominant factor. The race became a military testing ground, and in 1931 the British won the trophy outright with the Supermarine S.6B, which was the basis for the Spitfire that saved England in 1940.

The Schneider aircraft were all basically fighters on floats, but although Schneider's dream may have been hijacked by the military, the airlines still saw a huge potential in flying boats for long haul travel. to the building, at Rochester In the late 1930s forty-two Short Bros' S23 C Empire Flying-Boats were built at Rochester, England, to service the last days of the British Empire. The luxurious service, never to be matched, ended in June 1940, when the routes to the Empire were finally severed. In addition to operating with the airlines Imperial Airways, BOAC, Qantas and TEAL the big Sunderlands saw action with Allied air forces.

On the other side of the Atlantic Pan-Am were sewing up the transpacific routes with their equally large and impressive Clipper fleet. In 1935, air travel had begun between Hawaii and the mainland by Pan Am's China Clipper. Flight time from California to Honolulu was about 19 hours with one-way fare of $278. The first two trans-Pacific seaplanes were the Sikorsky S-42 and the Martin M130, but they were superseded by the Boeing B-314. It was delivered to Pan Am in January of 1939, and christened the Yankee Clipper. The largest commercial plane* until the arrival of the 747 some 30 years later, it was a feat of aeronautical luxury, with seating for 74 passengers along with sleeping quarters for 36. There was even a honeymoon suite and separate dressing rooms for men and women. Fresh food was prepared in the galley and served on linen covered tables. Mid-ocean airports were created at Midway and Wake Island, where Pan Am blasted out lagoons and shipped over prefabricated hotels. Sadly, the Clippers' time was short, though - by the end of the war landplanes had established dominance, with their increased range and speed coupled with a world-wide network of airfields. The airlines' most romantic chapter had drawn to a close.

The history of the Flying Boat in Airline Service

The first seaplanes were glider designs and were tested in the early 1900s although most did not fly. The first flight of a powered seaplane was before the first world war and its military potential was taken up. The first war brought the seaplane design and engine design along quickly and the multi-engine flying boat was designed and flown for military use. After the war the airlines began new services...

Boeing B-1 1919

The Boeing B-1 was the first commercial seaplane but it did not do well commercially due to the large amount of ex-military float and sea planes available.