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A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can both float, granting the aircraft buoyancy, and give aerodynamic sheath. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections (called sponsons) from the fuselage. Flying boats were some of the largest aircraft of the first half of the 20th century, superseded in size only by bombers developed during World War II. Their advantage lay in using water instead of expensive land-based runways, making them the basis for international airlines in the interwar period. They were also commonly used for maritime patrol and air-sea rescue.
The craft class or type came about after The Daily Mail offered a large monetary prize for an aircraft with transoceanic range in 1914 prompting a collaboration between British and American air pioneers, resulting in the Curtiss Model H. Following World War II, their use gradually tailed off, partially because of the investments in airports during the war. In the 21st century, flying boats maintain a few niche uses, such as for dropping water on forest fires, air transport around archipelagos, and access to undeveloped or roadless areas. Many modern seaplane variants, whether float or flying boat types are convertible amphibians—planes where either landing gear or flotation modes may be used to land and take off.
Henri Fabre, a French non-aviator/adventurer invented and was first to successfully flight test a sea plane which he named Le Canard, which is acknowledged as the first seaplane in history and a 'landmark' invention that inspired others some of whom for which he designed and sold Fabre floats over the next few years. The American prize winning pioneer aviator Glenn Curtiss had built experimental floatplanes before 1910, without proceeding to flight testing but after the pioneering successful seaplane flights of Henri Fabre in France while still interested, he stayed focused mainly on his land based air craft business and only slowly spent further development resources on small experimental models at Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and only slowly improved upon his earlier work.
In 1911 Curtiss unveiled a development of his floatplane experiments married to a larger version of his successful Curtiss Model D land plane technologies, but with a larger engine and this time fitted with a rudimentary hull and fuselage, and designated as the Model E, for the first time joining a boat hull to a flying craft and arguably the epoch event creating the flying boat class or type of seaplanes that would come to dominate long distance aeronautical travel for the next four-to-five decades. Consequently he soon became acquainted with others interested in both seaplane based and long range commercial aviation development two aspects which were hopelessly interrelated in those days when airports were yet to be built throughout most of the world, while the design expanded his new circle of flying enthusiast contacts to include Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander John Cyril Porte, a British aviation pioneer with more than a few important connections.
Subsequently, Lieutenant Commander Porte would soon come to be his chief test pilot in the Curtiss Model H developed in 191314 and then play an important role in selling that seminal flying boat design to the British Admiralty as the Type H-4 'American' flying boats, and then furthered the art one step beyond that with his hull design experiments at Felixstowe (See below section). Regardless of the importance of their meeting, because of the Model E release, in February 1911, the United States Navy took delivery of its very first airplane, a Curtiss Model E and soon tested landing and take-offs from ships using the land based Curtiss Model D.
In February 1917, the first prototype of the Felixstowe F.3 was flown. This 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.
The "notch" break through 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 for refueling.
The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company independently developed its designs into the small model 'F', the larger model 'K' several of which were sold to the Russian Naval Air Service, and the Model 'C' for the US Navy. Curtiss among others also built the Felixstowe F5 as the Curtiss F5L, based on the final Porte hull designs and powered by American Liberty engines.
Lohner-Werke flying boats starting with the Lohner E in 1914 and later (195) influential Lohner L versions.
A Curtiss NC-4 became the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1919, crossing via the Azores. Of the four that were to make the attempt, only one completed the flight.
In the 1930s, flying boats made it possible to have regular air transport between the US and Europe, opening up new air travel routes to South America, Africa, and Asia. Foynes, Ireland and Botwood, Newfoundland and Labrador were the termini for many early transatlantic flights. Where land-based aircraft lacked the required airfields to land, flying boats could stop at small island, river, lake or coastal stations to refuel and resupply. The Pan Am Boeing 314 "Clipper" planes brought exotic destinations like the Far East within reach of air travelers and came to represent the romance of flight.
In 1923, the first British commercial flying boat service was introduced with flights to and from the Channel Islands. The British aviation industry was experiencing rapid growth. 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 using aircraft such as the Short S.8 Calcutta.
In 1928, a new world achievement in aviation attracted the attention of the Australian public when four Supermarine Southampton flying boats of the RAF Far-East flight arrived in Melbourne on a circumnavigation and flag-waving mission. The RAF crews were warmly welcomed by the waterside crowds, and the flight was considered proof that flying boats had evolved to become reliable means of long distance transport.
Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, better known as Qantas, had been registered in Brisbane during November 1920. With good levels of public support for the new faster public transport and agreements to carry domestic mail, the outback airline grew. By 1931, Qantas was trialling land plane flights connecting with Imperial Airways services. Mail was now reaching London in just 16 days - less than half the time taken by sea.
Government tenders on both sides of the world invited applications to run new passenger and mail services between the ends of 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 Sydney's Rose Bay and Southampton was such a success with letter-writers that before long the volume of mail was exceeding aircraft storage space. A solution to the problem was found by the British Government, who in 1933 had requested aviation manufacturer Short Brothers to design a big new long-range monoplane for use by IAL. Partner Qantas agreed to the initiative and undertook to purchase six of the new Short S23 'C' class or 'Empire' flying boats.
Delivering the mail as quickly as possible generated a lot of competition and some innovative solutions. A variant of the Short Empire flying boats, Maia and Mercury, was a strange-looking solution where a four-engined floatplane Mercury was fixed on top of Maia, a heavily modified Short Empire flying boat.
The largest flying boat of the war was the Blohm & Voss BV 238, which was also the heaviest plane to fly during the Second World War and the largest aircraft built and flown by any of the Axis Powers.
In November 1939 the structure of Imperial Airways was changed to create British European Airways, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British South American Airways Corporation (which merged with BOAC in 1949), with the change being made official in 1 April 1940. BOAC continued to operate flying boat services from the (slightly) safer confines of Poole Harbour during wartime, returning to Southampton in 1947. .]]
During the Berlin Airlift (which lasted from June 1948 until August 1949) ten Sunderlands and two Hythes were used to transport goods from Finkenwerder on the Elbe near Hamburg to the isolated city, landing on Lake Havelsee beside RAF Gatow until it iced over. The Sunderlands were particularly used for transporting salt, as their airframes were already protected against corrosion from seawater. Transporting salt in standard aircraft risked rapid and severe structural corrosion in the event of a spillage. In addition, three Aquila flying boats were used during the airlift.
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