Seaplanes!

Another flying boat, the Boeing 314 ‘Clipper’

From a time when getting a flight was a touch more glamorous than it is today:

“The seats could be converted into 36 bunks for overnight accommodation. The 314s had a lounge and dining area, and the galleys were crewed by chefs from four-star hotels. Men and women were provided with separate dressing rooms, and white-coated stewards served five and six-course meals with gleaming silver service.”

I do like a good seaplane or for that matter WIGE craft (Lloyds count them as seacraft so I’m not being first to post the Ekranoplan here). Excellent so far, keep them coming.

Oops, don’t forget to keep the landing gear up…….

ekranoplan

Those Russian things are terrifying.

It’s the Catalina for me, a lovely looking aircraft.

Here’s one taking off then landing on Lake Geneva:

Since when was a hovercraft or an ekranoplan a seaplane?

Spent today at Duxford today. They’ve got a Catalina in USAAF colours (which i gather still flies) as well as the amazing Sunderland!

Indeed the Cat at Duxford does fly, I volunteer with the team that operate it and get to fly on it regularly.
I like. A lot.
It’s the same aircraft as the one as the in the You Tube above flying of Lake Geneva.

Any ideas why it’s painted in American colours? I gather it’s an ex-RAF frame…?

@Gary_C A Hovercraft crossing was always referred to as a flight and it was across water.

Therefore a Hovercraft is a seaplane. IMHO of course.

I always liked the Martin Seamaster.
Developed to use the sea if the Russians destroyed all the airfields but never really went it to service due to rapid development of ICBMs.

@Duffer, actually it’s an ex-Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft. It’s painted in the colours of a famous USAF example, 433915, ‘Miss Pick Up’ which operated out of Halesworth in Suffolk during the war.

There’s chapter and verse here, if you fancy a read :

History of 44-33915

Cheers !

My Grandfather flew a Walrus for the Fleet Air Arm during the war. Lovely quote from Wikipedia:
“The Walrus was affectionately known as the “Shagbat” or sometimes “Steam-pigeon”; the latter name coming from the steam produced by water striking the hot Pegasus engine.”

Currently in Baku and one of these flies about

Not the most exciting example. But this plane had just dropped us off in the middle of know where in New Zealnd

Float Plane leaving us in Dusky Sound by John Clinch[/url], on Flickr

@Gary_C A Hovercraft crossing was always referred to as a flight and it was across water.
Therefore a Hovercraft is a seaplane. IMHO of course.

But it ‘takes off’ & lands on hard standing so it isn’t a seaplane IMHO 😉

BBC i player currently has ‘first of the few’ about RJ Mitchell which has some nice contemporary footage of the Supermarines.

But it ‘takes off’ & lands on hard standing so it isn’t a seaplane IMHO

So does the Catalina and the Goose, you can’t argue that they’re not seaplanes. Technically they’re amphibious aircraft, but they’re still seaplanes.

]Grumman duck

Kermit Weeks flying his Grumman Duck pt1 🙂