Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Seaplane shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Seaplane offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Seaplane at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Seaplane? Wrong! If the Seaplane is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Seaplane then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Seaplane? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Seaplane and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Seaplane wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Seaplane then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Seaplane site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Seaplane, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Seaplane, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
float plane in Harbour Air livery.
A
seaplane is a
fixed-wing aircraft designed to take off and land (or "alight") upon water. Seaplanes can be divided into separate categories such as float planes, flying boats, and
amphibious aircraft ("amphibians").
These aircraft are occasionally called
hydroplanes, based on usage in several Romance languages, which is rare in English language.
Types
The word "seaplane" is used to describe two types of air/water vehicles: the floatplane and the
flying boat.
- A floatplane has slender pontoons mounted under the fuselage. Two floats are common, but many floatplanes of World War II had a single float under the main fuselage and two small floats on the wings. 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.
- In a flying boat, the main source of buoyancy is the fuselage, which acts like a hull (ship) in the water. Most flying boats have small floats mounted on their wings to keep them stable.
amphibious aircraft flying boat.The term "seaplane" is used by some to refer only to floatplanes (aircraft with floats as landing gear), with the flying boat being a distinct type of craft. This article treats both flying boats Dictionary definition, "Flying boat" and floatplanes as types of seaplane Dictionary definition, "Seaplane".
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 production seaplanes are largely amphibious and of a floatplane design.
History
The first seaplane was invented in March 1910 by the French engineer
Henri Fabre. Its name was
Le Canard ('the duck'), and took off from the water and flew 800 meters on its first flight on
March 28 1910. These experiments were closely followed by the aircraft pioneers
Gabriel Voisin, who purchased several of the Fabre floats and fitted them to their
Canard Voisin airplane. In October 1910, the Canard Voisin became the first seaplane to fly over the river Seine, and in March 1912, the first seaplane to be used militarily from a seaplane carrier,
Foudre ('the lightning').In the United States, early development was carried out at
Hammondsport, New York, New York by Glenn Curtiss who had beaten
Alexander Graham Bell and others in the
Aerial Experiment Association. The first American seaplane flight occurred on January 26, 1911.Englishman John Cyril Porte joined with Curtiss to design a transatlantic flying boat, and developed a more practical hull for Curtiss' airframe and engines with the distinctive 'step' which enabled the hull and floats to cleanly break free of the water's surface at take-off.In the UK the Curtiss flying boat was developed into the Felixstowe Porte Baby of flying boats, which were used in the First World War to patrol for German
U-boat.
Curtiss N-9 seaplanes were used during World War I as primary trainers, and over 2,500 Navy pilots learned to fly in them. A handful of N-9s were used in the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane project to develop an "aerial torpedo", an unmanned seaplane that would hit a distant target.
On March 27, 1919, the first transatlantic flight was completed by a
U.S. Navy NC-4 flying boat.
Due to the lack on runways and the perceived safety factor over water, many commercial airlines including
Imperial Airways (fore-runner of
BOAC), and
Pan-American World Airways used large seaplanes to provide service for long distance service across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.Aircraft specially built for these routes included some of the largest aircraft built between the wars.Examples include:
Smaller carriers found them useful as well for operating into areas without prepared runways.Popular with bush operators, sportsmen and explorers, a huge variety of designs were built.Examples include:
Typical for the above types, the
Grumman Goose came about in 1936, when a group of wealthy industrialists, including Henry Morgan, Marshall Field and E.R. Harriman, wanted an easier way to commute from their homes on Long Island, New York, to the financial district of Wall Street. They commissioned Roy Grumman to build ten airplanes that could take off from their private air strips and land on the water near the financial district.
During
World War II, most
navy used seaplanes for
reconnaissance, search and rescue, and
anti-submarine warfare. Possibly the most commonly known was the PBY Catalina (or PBY Catalina in Canadian and British service), and which was flown by the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and Canada as well as many others. Similar aircraft were used by Japan, Germany, Italy.
The US Navy utilized a fleet of Grumman Goose amphibians for reconnaissance, rescue and had many fitted with machine guns and bombs. Most battleships carried one or two (some cases as many as four) catapult-launched seaplanes to spot targets over the horizon for the big guns, or to fight off enemy reconnaissance planes. The failure of the German battleship Bismarck's
Arado 196 seaplane to hunt down a
PBY Catalina reconnaissance aircraft is said to have contributed to that ship's demise.
Examples include:
In the post war period the availability of large paved runways and the greatly expanded performance of land based planes meant that both commercial and military use was much reduced.
Anti-Submarine Warfare was just as easily carried out with land based aircraft, which often had better performance, and Search and Rescue could more easily be carried out with helicopters, which had the advantages of being operated from smaller ships, and in higher sea states. The compromises that came from being able to float, and arise again from the water cause excessive drag and add considerably to the weight of the aircraft. In commercial service this translated into increased costs, and for a military aircraft, into reduced warloads, speeds and ranges for a comparable aircraft.
Only in specialized roles were they able to remain competitive, such as waterbombing, where their ability to quickly reload is a huge asset. A number of surplus WW2 seaplanes including the
PBY Catalina and
Martin Mars were initially used in this role but their advancing age has required a new specially designed aircraft in the form of the
Canadair CL-215 which operates alongside an entire air force of second-hand land-based bombers and transports.
The British and the US experimented with jet powered seaplane fighters such as the
Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 but despite some successes these did not enter service. An attempt was made in the early to mid-1950s to develop a large jet-powered flying boat (the Martin
P6M SeaMaster) for the U.S. Navy. Although several prototypes were built and tested, the project, like those of the fighters, was eventually terminated.
The U.S. Navy, however, continued to operate seaplanes and seaplane tenders, especially in the Far East until the mid-1970s. Both Japan and Russia continued operating military seaplanes after this, primarily for Anti-Submarine Warfare where they can take advantage of their range and speed over helicopters, and still be able to land on the water.
Seaplanes are still being used for firefighting and sightseeing, but have been replaced in nearly all military roles by helicopters though they are being reconsidered for expanded military purposes in light of the pervasive surveillance means of satellites that make slow surface ships leaving a visible wakes easy to target with guided munitions.
Uses and operation
] float plane in [West Coast Air livery.
Numerous modern civilian aircraft have a floatplane variant, usually for light duty transportation to lakes and other remote areas. Most of these are offered as third-party modifications under a
Type certificate#Supplementary.2FSupplemental Type Certificate .28STC.29 (STC), although there are several aircraft manufacturers that build floatplanes from scratch, and a few that continue to build
flying boats. Many older flying boats remain in service for fire-fighting duty, and
Chalk's International Airlines operated a fleet of flying boats in passenger service until service was suspended after a
Chalk's Ocean Airways flight 101 on
December 19,
2005. Purely water-based seaplanes have largely been supplanted by amphibious aircraft.,
British Columbia,
CanadaSeaplanes can only take off and land on water with little or no Ocean surface wave action and, like other aircraft, have trouble in extreme weather. The size of waves a given design can withstand depends on, among other factors, the aircraft's size, hull or float design, and its weight. Flying boats can typically handle rougher water and are generally more stable than floatplanes while on the water.
Rescue organizations, such as coast guards, are among the largest modern operators of seaplanes due to their efficiency and their ability to both spot and rescue survivors. Land-based airplanes cannot rescue survivors, and many helicopters are limited in their capacity to carry survivors and in their
fuel efficiency compared to fixed-wing aircraft. (Helicopters may also be fitted with floats to facilitate their usage on water, though such craft are not referred to as "seaplanes".)
Water aircraft are also often used in remote areas such as the Alaskan and Canada outback, especially in areas with a large number of
lakes convenient for takeoff and landing. They may operate on a
Charter airline basis, provide scheduled service, or be operated by residents of the area for private, personal use.
Greece uses seaplanes to connect its many
Greek islands to the mainland. In the Western Hemisphere, there are numerous seaplane operators in the
Caribbean Sea that offer service within or between island groups.
In August 2007, Scottish based commercial operator Loch Lomond Seaplanes launched the only European city based seaplane service. They offer a daily service from Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, to the west coast town of Oban, as well as charters and excursions elsewhere.
See also
References
float plane in
Harbour Air livery.
A
seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft designed to take off and land (or "alight") upon water. Seaplanes can be divided into separate categories such as float planes, flying boats, and amphibious aircraft ("amphibians").
These aircraft are occasionally called
hydroplanes, based on usage in several Romance languages, which is rare in English language.
Types
The word "seaplane" is used to describe two types of air/water vehicles: the floatplane and the
flying boat.
- A floatplane has slender pontoons mounted under the fuselage. Two floats are common, but many floatplanes of World War II had a single float under the main fuselage and two small floats on the wings. 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.
- In a flying boat, the main source of buoyancy is the fuselage, which acts like a hull (ship) in the water. Most flying boats have small floats mounted on their wings to keep them stable.
amphibious aircraft flying boat.The term "seaplane" is used by some to refer only to floatplanes (aircraft with floats as landing gear), with the
flying boat being a distinct type of craft. This article treats both flying boats Dictionary definition, "Flying boat" and floatplanes as types of seaplane Dictionary definition, "Seaplane".
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 production seaplanes are largely amphibious and of a floatplane design.
History
The first seaplane was invented in March 1910 by the French engineer
Henri Fabre. Its name was
Le Canard ('the duck'), and took off from the water and flew 800 meters on its first flight on March 28 1910. These experiments were closely followed by the aircraft pioneers Gabriel Voisin, who purchased several of the Fabre floats and fitted them to their Canard Voisin airplane. In October 1910, the Canard Voisin became the first seaplane to fly over the river Seine, and in March 1912, the first seaplane to be used militarily from a seaplane carrier,
Foudre ('the lightning').In the United States, early development was carried out at
Hammondsport, New York,
New York by Glenn Curtiss who had beaten
Alexander Graham Bell and others in the
Aerial Experiment Association. The first American seaplane flight occurred on January 26,
1911.Englishman
John Cyril Porte joined with Curtiss to design a transatlantic flying boat, and developed a more practical hull for Curtiss' airframe and engines with the distinctive 'step' which enabled the hull and floats to cleanly break free of the water's surface at take-off.In the UK the Curtiss flying boat was developed into the
Felixstowe Porte Baby of flying boats, which were used in the First World War to patrol for German U-boat.
Curtiss N-9 seaplanes were used during World War I as primary trainers, and over 2,500 Navy pilots learned to fly in them. A handful of N-9s were used in the
Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane project to develop an "aerial torpedo", an unmanned seaplane that would hit a distant target.
On
March 27, 1919, the first transatlantic flight was completed by a U.S. Navy NC-4 flying boat.
Due to the lack on runways and the perceived safety factor over water, many commercial airlines including
Imperial Airways (fore-runner of
BOAC), and Pan-American World Airways used large seaplanes to provide service for long distance service across the Atlantic,
Pacific and
Indian Oceans.Aircraft specially built for these routes included some of the largest aircraft built between the wars.Examples include:
Smaller carriers found them useful as well for operating into areas without prepared runways.Popular with bush operators, sportsmen and explorers, a huge variety of designs were built.Examples include:
Typical for the above types, the Grumman Goose came about in 1936, when a group of wealthy industrialists, including Henry Morgan, Marshall Field and E.R. Harriman, wanted an easier way to commute from their homes on Long Island, New York, to the financial district of Wall Street. They commissioned Roy Grumman to build ten airplanes that could take off from their private air strips and land on the water near the financial district.
During World War II, most
navy used seaplanes for
reconnaissance,
search and rescue, and
anti-submarine warfare. Possibly the most commonly known was the PBY Catalina (or
PBY Catalina in Canadian and British service), and which was flown by the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and Canada as well as many others. Similar aircraft were used by Japan, Germany, Italy.
The US Navy utilized a fleet of Grumman Goose amphibians for reconnaissance, rescue and had many fitted with machine guns and bombs. Most battleships carried one or two (some cases as many as four) catapult-launched seaplanes to spot targets over the horizon for the big guns, or to fight off enemy reconnaissance planes. The failure of the
German battleship Bismarck's Arado 196 seaplane to hunt down a
PBY Catalina reconnaissance aircraft is said to have contributed to that ship's demise.
Examples include:
In the post war period the availability of large paved runways and the greatly expanded performance of land based planes meant that both commercial and military use was much reduced. Anti-Submarine Warfare was just as easily carried out with land based aircraft, which often had better performance, and
Search and Rescue could more easily be carried out with helicopters, which had the advantages of being operated from smaller ships, and in higher sea states. The compromises that came from being able to float, and arise again from the water cause excessive drag and add considerably to the weight of the aircraft. In commercial service this translated into increased costs, and for a military aircraft, into reduced warloads, speeds and ranges for a comparable aircraft.
Only in specialized roles were they able to remain competitive, such as waterbombing, where their ability to quickly reload is a huge asset. A number of surplus WW2 seaplanes including the PBY Catalina and
Martin Mars were initially used in this role but their advancing age has required a new specially designed aircraft in the form of the
Canadair CL-215 which operates alongside an entire air force of second-hand land-based bombers and transports.
The British and the US experimented with jet powered seaplane fighters such as the
Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 but despite some successes these did not enter service. An attempt was made in the early to mid-1950s to develop a large jet-powered flying boat (the Martin
P6M SeaMaster) for the U.S. Navy. Although several prototypes were built and tested, the project, like those of the fighters, was eventually terminated.
The U.S. Navy, however, continued to operate seaplanes and seaplane tenders, especially in the Far East until the mid-1970s. Both Japan and Russia continued operating military seaplanes after this, primarily for
Anti-Submarine Warfare where they can take advantage of their range and speed over helicopters, and still be able to land on the water.
Seaplanes are still being used for firefighting and sightseeing, but have been replaced in nearly all military roles by helicopters though they are being reconsidered for expanded military purposes in light of the pervasive surveillance means of satellites that make slow surface ships leaving a visible wakes easy to target with guided munitions.
Uses and operation
] float plane in [West Coast Air livery.
Numerous modern civilian aircraft have a floatplane variant, usually for light duty transportation to lakes and other remote areas. Most of these are offered as third-party modifications under a Type certificate#Supplementary.2FSupplemental Type Certificate .28STC.29 (STC), although there are several aircraft manufacturers that build floatplanes from scratch, and a few that continue to build
flying boats. Many older flying boats remain in service for fire-fighting duty, and Chalk's International Airlines operated a fleet of flying boats in passenger service until service was suspended after a
Chalk's Ocean Airways flight 101 on
December 19, 2005. Purely water-based seaplanes have largely been supplanted by amphibious aircraft., British Columbia,
CanadaSeaplanes can only take off and land on water with little or no Ocean surface wave action and, like other aircraft, have trouble in extreme weather. The size of waves a given design can withstand depends on, among other factors, the aircraft's size, hull or float design, and its weight. Flying boats can typically handle rougher water and are generally more stable than floatplanes while on the water.
Rescue organizations, such as coast guards, are among the largest modern operators of seaplanes due to their efficiency and their ability to both spot and rescue survivors. Land-based airplanes cannot rescue survivors, and many helicopters are limited in their capacity to carry survivors and in their fuel efficiency compared to fixed-wing aircraft. (Helicopters may also be fitted with floats to facilitate their usage on water, though such craft are not referred to as "seaplanes".)
Water aircraft are also often used in remote areas such as the Alaskan and
Canada outback, especially in areas with a large number of
lakes convenient for takeoff and landing. They may operate on a
Charter airline basis, provide scheduled service, or be operated by residents of the area for private, personal use.
Greece uses seaplanes to connect its many
Greek islands to the mainland. In the Western Hemisphere, there are numerous seaplane operators in the Caribbean Sea that offer service within or between island groups.
In August 2007, Scottish based commercial operator
Loch Lomond Seaplanes launched the only European city based seaplane service. They offer a daily service from Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, to the west coast town of Oban, as well as charters and excursions elsewhere.
See also
- Amphibious aircraft
- Flying boat
- List of seaplanes and flying boats
- Auxiliary cruiser
- Seaplane tender
References
Seaplane - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft designed to take off and land (alight) on water. Seaplanes can be divided into separate categories such as floatplanes, flying boats, and ...
The UK Seaplane Association
The UK Seaplane Association's web site ... Whatever your interest in water aviation in the UK, we hope you enjoy your visit to the UKSA Online!
Loch Lomond Seaplanes
Loch Lomond Seaplanes, the UK`s only commercial seaplane service, voted by the Scots as the country`s top "must do" activity, is a breathtaking travel experience - one of the World ...
Glasgow: Scotland with style - Seaplane Service
Loch Lomond Seaplanes operate a seaplane service from a new purpose-built terminal at the Glasgow Science Centre on the River Clyde to Oban Bay – a journey time of approximately ...
Subic Seaplane - Subic Bay Freeport Philippines Air Charter Service
Subic Seaplane, Inc. operates a non-scheduled charter seaplane service from the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in the Philippines
Melbourne Seaplanes - Home
Tourist seaplane flights over Melbourne departing from Hobson's Bay. Package and reservation details.
River Clyde seaplane service around Argyle and West of Scotland
The new Clyde seaplane service will offer trips to urban and rural tourist locations around Argyll and the West of Scotland. Packages hope to include weekend breaks and lunch trips
Ardanaiseig Hotel - Getting Here - By Seaplane
Ardanaiseig is a wildly romantic old country house Highlands hotel. It sits alone overlooking Loch Awe in deeply wooded gardens teeming with wildlife.
SEAPLANE project: home page
Home page of the INTERREG III B North Sea project SEAPLANE ... Sustainable and Efficient Air Transport - Platform for Linked Analysis of the North Sea Air Transport Environment
seaplane definition of seaplane in the Free Online Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia article about seaplane. Information about seaplane in the Columbia Encyclopedia, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, computing dictionary. seaplanes, history of seaplanes
