Fastest seaplane/flying boat, ski plane of WW2 ?

[Timppa]

No paper designs or prototypes.
Wikipedia don't help much, but:

Folland Aircraft undertook the conversion of a Spitfire Mk Vb, W3760, with Supermarine designed floats and this aircraft proved an immediate success with a top speed of 324 mph

A further Spitfire was converted in 1944, a Mark IX serial MJ892 powered by a Merlin 45. The performance of this aircraft was superb and with a top speed of 377 mph the fastest floatplane of the entire war.

So the latter does not count.

 

[davebender]

Kawanishi N1K1-J, N1K2-J Shiden "George" and N1K1 Kyofu "Rex"

 

[cherry blossom]

According to http://www.spitfires.flyer.co.uk/spitfire_floatplane.htm (which I only opened via Google's cache)

"A further Spitfire was converted in 1944, a Mark IX serial MJ892 powered by a Merlin 45. The performance of this aircraft was superb and with a top speed of 377 mph the fastest floatplane of the entire war."

ps. This is still below the speed record for a floatplane http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.C.72

pps. Sorry! I did not read the initial post carefully. Dave is almost certainly correct.

 

[Aozora]

Spitfire VB, with the proviso that all three were prototypes, although they were shipped to Egypt and tested operationally 324 mph @ 19,500 ft [Price: The Spitfire Story]. Otherwise the Kawanishi N1K1, which did get into production (8 prototypes, 89 pdn) and was used on operational service - 304 mph (264 kt) @ 18,700 ft (5,700 m) [Francillon: Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War]

 

[Shortround6]

A bit of confusion on the Spitfires. 3 MK VBs with Merlin 45s. One MK IX with a Merlin 66. Prototype? eight sets of floats already made but not fitted to the VBs were modified for the MK IX but also not fitted.

American contender: Curtiss SC Seahawk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

313mph?

 

[Ainene]

In theory - E15K among the fastest.
But real performance with detached main float remained mystery.

 

[Timppa]

Thanks for the input. IMO the main contenders are:

Sea plane:
N1K1 Kyofu or Curtiss SC Seahawk , 300-310 mph

Flying boat:
Kawanishi H8K "Emily", 290 mph

Ski plane:
Yak-1, 320-330 mph.