ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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I've always loved sea planes. This great video tells the history of some remarkable passenger-carrying "flying boats".

________ What Happened To Giant Flying Boats?


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

Long story short, what happened was World War II. During the war, the Allied forces built airstrips all over the South Pacific. Many of those became civilian airports after the war, eliminating the need for commercial aircraft that could operate from water.

Flying boats were always a kludge anyway. They required extra-sturdy construction to take the pounding of water takeoffs and landings, making them heavier than landplanes of comparable size and payload capacity. And the stepped V-bottom hulls and outrigger floats created a lot of parasitic drag. Planes that aren't designed to land on water are much more aerodynamically efficient.

Some of the old classic flying boats sure were pretty, though.

[Krel]

Not just in the South Pacific, they built airstrips all over the U.S. and Europe. This allowed the move from coastal airports.

David.