If It Can Fly, It Can Float!!! (5 Viewers)

[GTX]

More info:

China's Mysterious Ekranoplan Seen In Full For First Time

The first full image of China's "Bohai Sea Monster" wing-in-ground effect craft has emerged, but major questions remain.

www.twz.com

 

[fannum]

View attachment 835146

There were a couple landplane C-125s in Vietnam civil/VN military use in '63 my first tour there.

Very capable aircraft, only bettered by DH Caribou/Buffalo cargo haulers later. Better than C-47s/C-123s in small fields.

 

[fannum]

China maybe building an ekranoplane

View attachment 838018

Hello, Taiwan, Spratley Islands and all those other close in waterway bordered land masses China considers part of its 'sovereign territory!

Invading would be so much quicker and sudden than those clumsy LSTs and Higgens boats ...

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

More info:

China's Mysterious Ekranoplan Seen In Full For First Time

The first full image of China's "Bohai Sea Monster" wing-in-ground effect craft has emerged, but major questions remain.

www.twz.com

Yep, that's my link also.

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

If anyone is interested in the C-125:


View: https://youtu.be/tuw3anUQvl0?si=kxquDN02zkdUG1_Y

 

[cammerjeff]

How about the only heavier than air aircraft to bomb the continental USA, the Yokosuka E14Y in action

Source IJN – Page 5 – Inch High Guy

 

[Capt. Vick]

There were a couple landplane C-125s in Vietnam civil/VN military use in '63 my first tour there.

Very capable aircraft, only bettered by DH Caribou/Buffalo cargo haulers later. Better than C-47s/C-123s in small fields.

I don't believe the C-125 was ever sent to Vietnam. Perhaps you mistake it for something else? The C-123 perhaps?

Also that picture of the "Sea Raider" os photo shop. Very cool though.

 

[fannum]

I don't believe the C-125 was ever sent to Vietnam. Perhaps you mistake it for something else? The C-123 perhaps?

Also that picture of the "Sea Raider" os photo shop. Very cool though.

I emphasize, NOT in USAF service. These were in camo, and were either VNAF, civil, or even Air America/spook. Guys tried to call them Ford tri-motors, but I knew better. Tân Sơn Nhất and Biên Hòa in those early '60s were a hodge podge of WWII era military craft and modern jet airline service (there was a fiction then of 'Limited Wars' that kept the mostly Third World combatants in Latin America, Asia and Africa from using advanced weapons like turbine aircraft!! ... so armed P-51s, T-28s, T-6s, A-26s all had their day.)
C-125s had been tried in Canada and Alaska when released surplus, and I'd seen them there in late '50s.
Saw pix of remains of one in SEAsia bush field, ID'd as a C-123 but third engine gave it away.
I have a hard time figuring the value of the C-125C Bellanca style strut.

 

[SaparotRob]

I have a hard time figuring the value of the C-125C Bellanca style strut.

Style and panache?

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff!

 

[GTX]

 

[fannum]

View attachment 838547

Just what did you expect from an outfit that gave us the Walrus ... AND the Spitfire?

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

Just what did you expect from an outfit that gave us the Walrus ... AND the Spitfire?

Maybe a menage a trois. Those tail fins looks a little Beriev.

 

[fannum]

Maybe a menage a trois. Those tail fins looks a little Beriev.

Well, note the fins are decidedly elliptical ...

... but, could Walt Disney have had influence?

(btw: both the Walrus and the Seagull operated off carrier decks!)

 

[EwenS]

I think you meant the Walrus and its successor the Sea Otter.

Only 3 prototypes if the Type 381 Seagull were ordered and only two flew. PA143 had a third central fin added during its trials while the second prototype had it from its first flight. As for carrier operations, these were limited to deck landing trials in Oct 1949. 54 deck landings on Illustrious.

Vickers Supermarine Type 381 Seagull ASR-1 – Let Let Let – Warplanes

 

[fannum]

I think you meant the Walrus and its successor the Sea Otter.

Only 3 prototypes if the Type 381 Seagull were ordered and only two flew. PA143 had a third central fin added during its trials while the second prototype had it from its first flight. As for carrier operations, these were limited to deck landing trials in Oct 1949. 54 deck landings on Illustrious.

Vickers Supermarine Type 381 Seagull ASR-1 – Let Let Let – Warplanes

Are you referring to carrier operations?
You mention late '40s Seagull trials, both on Illustrious and Ark Royal.
At least once for Walrus.

I just find it remarkable that a flying boat would be considered for carrier deck ops.

 

[EwenS]

Are you referring to carrier operations?
You mention late '40s Seagull trials, both on Illustrious and Ark Royal.
At least once for Walrus.
View attachment 838567
I just find it remarkable that a flying boat would be considered for carrier deck ops.

WW2 RN carriers with the exception of the Implacables, had the hangar height to carry the Walrus. Rarely carried. When they were they were intended for Air Sea Rescue. Victorious carried a pair as her ship's flight between Jan & April 1945 while with the BPF. They were nicknamed "Darby" & "Joan". They operated from Illustrious for Operation Meridian and one was dispatched for that purpose but IIRC didn't find the downed pilot concerned.

1700 squadron put Walrus aboard the escort carriers of East Indies Fleet in 1945, as in the photo you posted.

1700 Naval Air Squadron

Post war the light fleet carriers had a ship's flight generally with a single Sea Otter. The last rescue of a downed pilot by a Sea Otter took place on 19 July 1950 when HMS Triumph's aircraft rescued a USN pilot off Korea. Off Korea they were replaced by Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopter borrowed from the USN

Inter war the USN used the Grumman JF Duck as a utility aircraft from its carriers.

Grumman JF Duck - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Warspite63]

Just what did you expect from an outfit that gave us the Walrus ... AND the Spitfire?

So .... it's a Spitrus? A Walfire?......... ;-P
Either way, I really like it

 

[Gnomey]

Nice shots!

 

[GTX]