If It Can Fly, It Can Float!!! (105 Viewers)

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

Well, up until not long ago it flew and floated…:

IMG_3548.jpeg
IMG_3549.jpeg

IMG_3551.jpeg
IMG_3550.jpeg
 
By mid '30s, Short Brothers had built the Empire flying boats which were capable of operating long range routes in the Empire but could only attempt the trans-Atlantic route by replacing passenger and mail-carrying space with extra fuel.
6ef074268127f8e7f4ecc35ebbb13850.jpg

It was known that aircraft could maintain flight with a greater payload than that possible during take-off. Major Robert Mayo, the Technical General Manager at Imperial Airways, proposed mounting a small, long-range seaplane (Mercury) on top of a larger carrier aircraft (Maia), using the combined power of both to bring the smaller aircraft to operational height, at which time the two aircraft would separate, the carrier aircraft returning to base while the other flew on to its destination.
6ef074268127f8e.jpg

The first transatlantic flight was made on 21 July 1938 from Foynes, on the Shannon Estuary, west coast of Ireland, to Boucherville, near Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a flight of 2,930 miles (4,720 km), with Mercury just carrying mail. After modifications to extend Mercury's range, it established a record flight for a seaplane of 6,045 miles (9,728 km) from Dundee in Scotland to Alexander Bay, in South Africa between 6 and 8 October 1938.
 
I've been flying float planes since my teens, up to and including some logged time in CG UF/SA-16 and even Navy P5Ms. Worked for Gopher Aviation in MN one summer, hauling MN fishermen, and rebuilt three tornado damaged Cessnas to fund college. We'd often land and take off on grass next to runway on morning dew.
Two Ercoupe negative issues I could see are unsticking if no wind, two people, and more than a shaving kit, AND the linked rudder/aileron with a cross-wind landing/TO. A plus though is it has a low wing that helps with ground effect, while most float birds are high wing.
I got rated in an 85 hp rag wing, no flap Cessna 120 flying off a wide spot in the TX Colorado River on the edge of Austin ... sure was glad it didn't have the 75hp mill.
 
I got my rating in a Citabria 7GCBC.
My instructor regularly won the flyoffs at Lake Cushman with it, based on technique. RIP Scott.
We would throttle to 1700 to simulate low perforrmance and horse it up on step, then one float at a time out of the water with that little bit of yank and yaw that the Ercoupe would not have.
Fly around the lake in ground effect for a bit :)
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back