If It Can Fly, It Can Float!!!

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The Flettner Airplane made its debut in the 1930s. Instead of wings, it flies using rotating cylinders that stick out from either side of its body.



 
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Two D-4s were built, powered by 400-hp Liberty engines buried in the fuselage. They were assigned serial numbers A2653 and A2654. A2653 crashed during a test flight on July 19, 1918, killing pilot Lt.(j.g.) Arthur F. Souther. The second one flew successfully in October 1918 but was not accepted by the Navy until April 1919. Few pilots attempted to fly the D-4 because of its high rate of speed for its time. It was reported that once they got used to it, the crews found the D-4 quite agile and fun to fly, but many considered it far too fast. The seaplane also had a tendency to bob and porpoise as it landed and took off, which added an extra element of excitement. No further D-4s were built as Gallaudet turned his attention to constructing the more successful Curtiss HS-2L flying boats.
 
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Wasn't sure whether to create a separate thread for this but, given the topic, it seemed the best place to catch the eye of those interested in seaplanes. Apparently, in Feb this year, the wreckage of an Italian Fiat C.29 Schneider Trophy racer was discovered in Lake Garda. The aircraft crashed in 1929, the pilot being thrown clear. The video is a tad documentary-like but the footage showing the wreck, with paint and markings intact, is pretty amazing:

 
johnbr said:
Two D-4s were built, powered by 400-hp Liberty engines buried in the fuselage....
Click to expand...

Don't mean to cause trouble, but the aircraft marked "59 A" was actually the Gallaudet D-1. The D-1 was very similar to the later D-4 and is often misidentified as such. The D-1 was powered by two 125 hp (or so) Duesenberg four-cylinder inline engines. Either one could be decoupled from the ring the propeller blades were mounted to.
 
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