Seaplane
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft designed to take off and land (or "alight") upon water.
These aircraft are occasionally called hydroplanes, based on usage in several Romance languages, which is rare in English.
Contents |
[edit] Types of seaplane
There are two types of seaplane: the floatplane and the flying boat.
- A floatplane has slender pontoons mounted under the fuselage. Two floats are common, but many float planes 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 much like a ship's hull in the water. Most flying boats have small floats mounted on their wings to keep them stable.
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 in its own right. The above definitions and assumption that flying boats[1] and float planes[2] are distinct types of seaplane[3] are used herein.
An amphibious aircraft can take off and land both on conventional runways and on water, whereas 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, although the Seawind 300C, an amphibious flying boat, has begun the FAA certification process.
[edit] History of seaplanes
The first seaplane was invented in March 1910 by the French engineer Henri Fabre. Its name was Le Canard, 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 and Charles 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, La Foudre.
In the United States, early development was carried out at Hammondsport, 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 Jan. 26, 1911. 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 seaplane.
During World Wars I and II, many navies used seaplanes for reconnaissance, search and rescue, and anti-submarine warfare. 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 the ship's demise.
In the post war period the military uses of seaplanes were much reduced. The British and the US experimented with jet powered seaplane fighters such as the Saunders-Roe SR.A/1. Seaplane tenders, such as HMS Engadine, fell out of use after the 1950s with the general demise of the seaplane, the advent of the first stable, fully-controllable helicopter, and continued development of the modern aircraft carrier. The U.S. Navy, however, continued to operate seaplanes and seaplane tenders, especially in the Far East until the mid-1970s.
An attempt was made in the early to mid-1950s to develop a full-sized jet-powered flying boat (the Martin P6M Seamaster) for the U.S. Navy but, though several prototypes were built and tested, the project was eventually terminated for a variety of reasons.
Seaplanes are increasingly being used for ASW, SAR and firefighting and are being considered 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.[citation needed]
[edit] Seaplane uses and operation
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 supplemental type certificate (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 Ocean Airways operated a fleet of flying boats in passenger service until service was suspended after a crash on December 19, 2005. Purely water-based seaplanes have largely been supplanted by amphibious aircraft.
Seaplanes can only take off and land on water with little or no 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".)
Seaplanes are also often used in remote areas such as the Alaskan and Canadian outback, especially in areas with a large number of lakes convenient for takeoff and landing. They may operate on a charter basis, provide scheduled service, or be operated by residents of the area for private, personal use.
Within the European Union, Greece is the only country that uses seaplanes to connect its many 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.
[edit] See also
- Amphibious aircraft
- Flying boat
- List of flying boats and seaplanes
- Auxiliary cruiser
- Seaplane tender
