Seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.[1] Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteristics: floatplanes and flying boats; the latter are generally far larger and can carry far more. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are in a subclass called amphibious aircraft, or amphibians. Seaplanes were sometimes called hydroplanes,[2] but currently this term applies instead to motor-powered watercraft that use the technique of hydrodynamic lift to skim the surface of water when running at speed.[1]
The use of seaplanes gradually tapered off after World War II, partially because of the investments in airports during the war but mainly because landplanes were less constrained by weather conditions that could result in sea states being too high to operate seaplanes while landplanes could continue to operate. In the 21st century, seaplanes maintain a few niche uses, such as for aerial firefighting, air transport around archipelagos, and access to undeveloped or roadless areas, some of which have numerous lakes. In British English, seaplane is sometimes used specifically to refer to a floatplane, rather than a flying boat.
Types
The word "seaplane" is used to describe two types of air/water vehicles: the floatplane and the flying boat.
- A floatplane has slender floats, mounted under the fuselage. Two floats are common, but other configurations are possible. Only the floats of a floatplane normally come into contact with water. The fuselage remains above water. Some small land aircraft can be modified to become float planes, and in general, floatplanes are small aircraft. Floatplanes are limited by their inability to handle wave heights typically greater than 12 inches (0.31 m). These floats add to the empty weight of the airplane and to the drag coefficient, resulting in reduced payload capacity, slower rate of climb, and slower cruise speed.
- In a flying boat, the main source of buoyancy is the fuselage, which acts like a ship's hull in the water because the fuselage's underside has been hydrodynamically shaped to allow water to flow around it. Most flying boats have small floats mounted on their wings to keep them stable. Not all small seaplanes have been floatplanes, but most large seaplanes have been flying boats, with their great weight supported by their hulls.
The term "seaplane" is used by some instead of "floatplane". This is the standard British usage.[1][3] This article treats both flying boats[4] and floatplanes[5] as types of seaplane,[6] in the US fashion.
An amphibious aircraft can take off and land both on conventional runways and water. A true seaplane can only take off and land on water. There are amphibious flying boats and amphibious floatplanes, as well as some hybrid designs, e.g., floatplanes with retractable floats.
Modern (2019) production seaplanes range in size from flying-boat type
History
Taking off on water was attempted by some early flight attempts, but water take off and landing began in earnest in the 1910s and seaplanes pioneered transatlantic routes, and were used in World War I. They continued to develop before World War II, and had widespread use. After World War II, the creation of so many land airstrips meant water landings began to drift into special applications. They continued in niches such as access in remote areas, forest fire fighting, and maritime patrol.
Early pioneers
The Frenchman Alphonse Pénaud filed the first patent for a flying machine with a boat hull and retractable landing gear in 1876, but Austrian Wilhelm Kress is credited with building the first seaplane, Drachenflieger, in 1898, although its two 30 hp (22 kW) Daimler engines were inadequate for take-off, and it later sank when one of its two floats collapsed.[7]
On 6 June 1905, Gabriel Voisin took off and landed on the River Seine with a towed kite glider on floats. The first of his unpowered flights was 150 yards (140 m).[7] He later built a powered floatplane in partnership with Louis Blériot, but the machine was unsuccessful.
Other pioneers also attempted to attach floats to aircraft in Britain, Australia, France and the United States.
On 28 March 1910, Frenchman Henri Fabre flew the first successful powered seaplane, the Gnome Omega-powered hydravion, a trimaran floatplane.[8] Fabre's first successful take off and landing by a powered seaplane inspired other aviators, and he designed floats for several other flyers. The first hydro-aeroplane competition was held in Monaco in March 1912, featuring aircraft using floats from Fabre, Curtiss, Tellier and Farman. This led to the first scheduled seaplane passenger services, at Aix-les-Bains, using a five-seat Sanchez-Besa from 1 August 1912.[7] The French Navy ordered its first floatplane in 1912. On May 10, 1912 Glenn L. Martin flew a homemade seaplane in California, setting records for distance and time.[9]
In 1911−12,
There was quite few experiments by aviators to adapt the Wright Model B to a water landing. The first motion picture from an airplane, was from a Wright Model B floatplane by Frank Coffyn in 1911. The Wright Brothers, widely celebrated for their breakthrough aircraft designs were bit slower to develop a seaplane; Wilbur died in 1912 and the company was bogged down in lawsuits. However, by 1913, the Wright Brother company developed the Wright Model CH Flyer.[10] In 1913, the Wright company also came out withe Wright Model G Aerboat, which was a seaplane with an enclosed cabin (a first for the company);the chief engineer of this version was Grover Loening.[11]
In Britain, Captain Edward Wakefield and Oscar Gnosspelius began to explore the feasibility of flight from water in 1908. They decided to make use of Windermere in the Lake District, England's largest lake. The latter's first attempts to fly attracted large crowds, though the aircraft failed to take off and required a re-design of the floats incorporating features from the boat hulls of the lake's motor boat racing club member Isaac Borwick. Meanwhile, Wakefield ordered a floatplane similar to the design of the 1910 Fabre Hydravion. By November 1911, both Gnosspelius and Wakefield had aircraft capable of flight from water and awaited suitable weather conditions. Gnosspelius's flight was short-lived, as the aircraft crashed into the lake. Wakefield's pilot, however, taking advantage of a light northerly wind, successfully took off and flew at a height of 50 feet (15 m) to Ferry Nab, where he made a wide turn and returned for a perfect landing on the lake's surface.
In Switzerland, Émile Taddéoli equipped the Dufaux 4 biplane with swimmers and successfully took off in 1912. A seaplane was used during the Balkan Wars in 1913, when a Greek "Astra Hydravion" did a reconnaissance of the Turkish fleet and dropped four bombs.[12][13]
Birth of an industry
In 1913, the
American businessman Rodman Wanamaker became determined that the prize should go to an American aircraft and commissioned the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company to design and build an aircraft capable of making the flight. Curtiss's development of the Flying Fish flying boat in 1913 brought him into contact with John Cyril Porte, a retired Royal Navy Lieutenant, aircraft designer and test pilot who was to become an influential British aviation pioneer. Recognising that many of the early accidents were attributable to a poor understanding of handling while in contact with the water, the pair's efforts went into developing practical hull designs to make the transatlantic crossing possible.[14]
The two years before World War I's breakout also saw the privately produced pair of Benoist XIV biplane flying boats, designed by Thomas W. Benoist, initiate the start of the first heavier-than-air airline service anywhere in the world, and the first airline service of any kind at all in the United States.[15][16]
At the same time, the British boat-building firm
In the US, Wanamaker's commission built on Glen Curtiss's previous development and experience with the
Trials of the America began 23 June 1914 with Porte also as Chief Test Pilot; testing soon revealed serious shortcomings in the design; it was under-powered, so the engines were replaced with more powerful tractor engines. There was also a tendency for the nose of the aircraft to try to submerge as engine power increased while taxiing on water. This phenomenon had not been encountered before, since Curtiss's earlier designs had not used such powerful engines nor large fuel/cargo loads and so were relatively more buoyant. In order to counteract this effect, Curtiss fitted
World War I (1914-18)
Curtiss and Porte's plans were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. Porte sailed for England on 4 August 1914 and rejoined the Navy as a member of the
The Curtiss H-4s were soon found to have a number of problems; they were underpowered, their hulls were too weak for sustained operations, and they had poor handling characteristics when afloat or taking off.[19][20] One flying boat pilot, Major Theodore Douglas Hallam, wrote that they were "comic machines, weighing well under two tons; with two comic engines giving, when they functioned, 180 horsepower; and comic control, being nose heavy with engines on and tail heavy in a glide."[21]
At Felixstowe, Porte made advances in flying-boat design and developed a practical hull design with the distinctive "Felixstowe notch".[22] Porte's first design to be implemented in Felixstowe was the Felixstowe Porte Baby, a large, three-engined biplane flying boat, powered by one central pusher and two outboard tractor Rolls-Royce Eagle engines.
Porte modified an H-4 with a new hull whose improved hydrodynamic qualities made taxiing, take-off and landing much more practical and called it the Felixstowe F.1.
Porte's innovation of the "Felixstowe notch" enabled the craft to overcome suction from the water more quickly and break free for flight much more easily. This made operating the craft far safer and more reliable. The "notch" breakthrough would soon after evolve into a "step", with the rear section of the lower hull sharply recessed above the forward lower hull section, and that characteristic became a feature of both flying-boat hulls and seaplane floats. The resulting aircraft would be large enough to carry sufficient fuel to fly long distances and could berth alongside ships to take on more fuel.
Porte then designed a similar hull for the larger
In February 1917, the first prototype of the Felixstowe F.3 was flown. It was larger and heavier than the F.2, giving it greater range and heavier bomb load, but poorer agility. Approximately 100 Felixstowe F.3s were produced before the end of the war.
The Felixstowe F.5 was intended to combine the good qualities of the F.2 and F.3, with the prototype first flying in May 1918. The prototype showed superior qualities to its predecessors but, to ease production, the production version was modified to make extensive use of components from the F.3, which resulted in lower performance than the F.2A or F.5.
Porte's final design at the Seaplane Experimental Station was the 123-foot-span five-engined Felixstowe Fury triplane (also known as the "Porte Super-Baby" or "PSB").[25]
F.2, F.3, and F.5 flying boats were extensively employed by the Royal Navy for coastal patrols and to search for German U-boats. In 1918, they were towed on lighters towards the northern German ports to extend their range; on 4 June 1918, this resulted in three F.2As engaging in a dogfight with ten German seaplanes, shooting down two confirmed and four probables at no loss.[14] As a result of this action, British flying boats were dazzle-painted to aid identification in combat.
The
Meanwhile, the pioneering flying-boat designs of François Denhaut had been steadily developed by the Franco-British Aviation Company into a range of practical craft. Smaller than the Felixstowes, several thousand FBAs served with almost all of the Allied forces as reconnaissance craft, patrolling the North Sea, Atlantic and Mediterranean Oceans.
In Italy, several seaplanes were developed, starting with the L series and progressing with the M series. The Macchi M.5, in particular, was extremely manoeuvrable and agile and matched the land-based aircraft it had to fight. Two hundred forty-four were built in total. Towards the end of World War I, the aircraft were flown by Italian Navy Aviation, United States Navy and United States Marine Corps airmen. Ensign Charles Hammann won the first Medal of Honor awarded to a United States naval aviator in an M.5
The German aircraft manufacturing company
Between the wars
In September 1919, British company Supermarine started operating the first flying-boat service in the world, from Woolston to Le Havre in France, but it was short-lived.[citation needed]
A Curtiss
In 1923, the first successful commercial flying-boat service was introduced, with flights to and from the Channel Islands. After frequent appeals by the industry for subsidies, the Government decided that nationalization was necessary and ordered five aviation companies to merge to form the state-owned Imperial Airways of London (IAL). IAL became the international flag-carrying British airline, providing flying-boat passenger and mail-transport links between Britain and South Africa and India using aircraft such as the Short S.8 Calcutta.
In 1928, four Supermarine Southampton flying boats of the RAF Far East flight arrived in Melbourne, Australia. The flight was considered proof that flying boats had become a reliable means of long-distance transport.
In the 1930s, flying boats made it possible to have regular air transport between the U.S. and Europe, opening up new air travel routes to South America, Africa, and Asia.
By 1931, mail from Australia was reaching Britain in 16 days, or less than half the time taken by sea. In that year, government tenders on both sides of the world invited applications to run new passenger and mail services between the ends of the Empire, and Qantas and IAL were successful with a joint bid. A company under combined ownership was then formed, Qantas Empire Airways. The new ten-day service between Rose Bay, New South Wales, (near Sydney) and Southampton was such a success that the volume of mail soon exceeded aircraft storage space.
A solution was found by the British government, who had requested Short Brothers to design a large long-range monoplane for IAL in 1933. Partner Qantas purchased six Short Empire flying boats.
Delivering the mail as quickly as possible generated a lot of competition and some innovative designs. One variant of the Short Empire flying boats was the strange-looking
Sir Alan Cobham devised a method of in-flight refuelling in the 1930s. In the air, the Short Empire could be loaded with more fuel than it could take off with. Short Empire flying boats serving the trans-Atlantic crossing were refueled over Foynes; with the extra fuel load, they could make a direct trans-Atlantic flight.[17] A Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow was used as the fuel tanker.[17]
The German
World War II
The military value of flying boats was well-recognized, and every country bordering on water operated them in a military capacity at the outbreak of the war. They were utilized in various tasks from
The largest flying boat of the war was the
In November 1939, IAL was restructured into three separate companies:
The Martin Company produced the prototype
Post-War
After World War II, the use of flying boats rapidly declined for several reasons. The ability to land on water became less of an advantage owing to the considerable increase in the number and length of land-based runways during World War II. Further, as the speed and range of land-based aircraft increased, the commercial competitiveness of flying boats diminished; their design compromised aerodynamic efficiency and speed to accomplish the feat of waterborne takeoff and landing. Competing with new civilian jet aircraft like the de Havilland Comet and Boeing 707 proved impossible.
The Hughes H-4 Hercules, in development in the U.S. during the war, was even larger than the BV 238, but it did not fly until 1947. The "Spruce Goose", as the 180-ton H-4 was nicknamed, was the largest flying boat ever to fly. Carried out during Senate hearings into Hughes's use of government funds on its construction, the short hop of about a mile (1.6 km) at 70 feet (21 m) above the water by the "Flying Lumberyard" was claimed by Hughes as vindication of his efforts. Cutbacks in expenditure after the war and the disappearance of its intended mission as a transatlantic transport left it no purpose.[29]
In 1944, the
During the
BOAC ceased flying boat services out of Southampton in November 1950.
Bucking the trend, in 1948,
The technically advanced
The U.S. Navy continued to operate flying boats (notably the
The U.S. Coast Guard operated HU-16 Albatross (affectionately known as the 'goat') well into the 1980s, retiring them as the airframes clocked out their flying 11 thousand flying hours. About twenty were still in service in the 1970s, and the last operation flight was in 1983. The aircraft was very popular with the Coast Guard due to its unique capabilities compared to other types, and was noted for its versatility, range, and ability to land on water which was especially useful for water rescues.[30]
Ansett Australia operated a flying-boat service from Rose Bay to Lord Howe Island until 1974, using Short Sandringhams.
On 18 December 1990, Pilot Tom Casey completed the first round-the-world flight in a floatplane with only water landings using a Cessna 206 named Liberty II.[31]
Uses and operation
Many modern civilian aircraft have a floatplane variant, usually as utility transports to lakes and other remote areas. Most of these are offered as third-party modifications under a
Seaplanes are also used in remote areas such as the
One of the modern floatplane conversions under consideration in the 2020s, is floatplane version of the C-130 for special military applications.[32]
See also
- List of flying boats and floatplanes
- Ground effect vehicle
- IAR 111
- Observation seaplane
- Seaplane tender
References
- ^ a b c Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009.
- ^ de Saint-Exupery, A. (1940). "Wind, Sand and Stars" p33, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
- ^ The Oxford English Dictionary defines "seaplane" as An aeroplane designed to be able to operate from water; specifically, one with floats, in contrast to a flying boat.
- ^ "Definition of FLYING BOAT". www.merriam-webster.com. 18 April 2023.
- ^ "Definition of FLOATPLANE". www.merriam-webster.com. 10 June 2023.
- ^ "Definition of SEAPLANE". www.merriam-webster.com. 3 June 2023.
- ^ a b c d e Flying Boats & Seaplanes: A History from 1905, Stéphane Nicolaou [page needed]
- ^ Naughton, Russell. Henri Fabre (1882–1984)." Monash University Centre for Telecommunications and Information Engineering, May 15, 2002. Retrieved: 9 May 2008
- ^ "CHL # 775 First water-to-water flight Orange". www.californiahistoricallandmarks.com.
- ^ "Wright Brothers Flying Boats Part II".
- ^ "1913-1914 Wright Model G". www.wright-brothers.org. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ "Anonymous (2009) The establishment of the Navy Airforce, Fox2 Magazine (in Greek language)". Archived from the original on December 3, 2013.
- ISBN 1901432203.
- ^ a b c The Felixstowe Flying Boats, Flight 2 December 1955
- ^ Missouri Historical Society. Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society, Volumes 31–32.
- ^ "airandspacemuseum.org Roos, Frederick W., "The Brief, Bright Aviation Career of St. Louis's Tom Benoist," American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 2005". Archived from the original on December 21, 2010.
- ^ ISBN 1-85794-161-6.
- ^ Carpenter, Jr, G. J. (Jack) (2005). "Photographs 1914". Glenn H. Curtiss, Founder of The American Aviation Industry. Internet Archive - Way Back Machine. Archived from the original on October 20, 2006. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
- ^ Bruce Flight 2 December 1955, p. 844.
- ^ London 2003, pp. 16–17.
- ^ Hallam 1919, pp. 21–22.
- ^ "Felixstowe." Archived 2006-09-01 at the Wayback Machine NASM. Retrieved: May 20, 2012.
- ^ London 2003, pp. 24–25.
- ^ Bruce Flight 2 December 1955, p. 846.
- ^ "Felixstowe Flying-Boats." Will Higgs Co, United Kingdom. Retrieved: 24 December 2009.
- ^ "Flying-boats in Fermanagh". Inland Waterways News. Inland Waterways Association of Ireland. Spring 2002. Archived from the original on 2012-07-20. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
- ^ "Castle Archdale Country Park". Northern Ireland Environment Agency. Archived from the original on 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2009-06-19.
- ^ Goebel, Greg. "The Martin Mariner, Mars, & Marlin Flying Boats." Vectorsite. Retrieved: May 20, 2012.
- ^ Its claim to true flying status is disputed as it made but one short flight in its life
- ^ "1951: Coast Guard Acquires the UF-1G/2G Albatross Aircraft". Coast Guard Aviation History. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ Bill Coleman (April 1991). "Floats over the world". Air Progress: 42.
- ^ Trevithick, Joseph (2023-05-09). "Amphibious C-130 Won't Fly For Two To Three More Years". The Drive. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
External links
- Media related to Seaplanes at Wikimedia Commons