If It Can Fly, It Can Float!!!

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Has anyone seen or have any information on the SEA DART, a JET Seaplane Fighter with Skis that would act like "Hydrofoils" on takeoff and fully retract into the "watertight" fuselage in flight??

I "modeled" it as a kid in the '50s and actually saw one at the Kissimmee Aircraft Museum in Florida in the last '70s?

Air Museum

Thanks
Rich Hagerty
 
You might see an alert coming by saying I rated your post as "Dumb". My apologies, I did not mean to do that. I am on my iPhone while on my lunch break and accidentally hit it with my thumb. It was not on purpose.
 

No information, but this thread has a video you may like!
 
Bv 222 V-4 X4+DH somewhere in the Med, possibly off Tobruk - note the HD 151 gun turret above the cockpit and the Viking ship badge of the LTS (See) 222 below the cockpit. Between September and October 1942 X4+DH made some 25 landings off Tobruk flying from southern Italy -regular pilot during this period was Oblt Walter Blume a former DLH Flugkapitän with some 53 crossings of the Atlantic in his logbook. During October 1942 X4+DH flew back to Travemünde for maintenance and overhaul just prior to the British El Alamein offensive. On 24 November 1942 Bv 222 V-6 X4+FH was shot down by Beaufighters north of the island of Linosa while on 10 December a Kette of three Bv 222's including the V-4 X4+DH en route to Tripoli from Pantelleria was also set upon by Beaufighters of 227 Sqn who sent the V-8 X4+HH into the sea in flames with the loss of all nine crew. Pilot Blume who survived this encounter wrote a report two days later that was very critical of the enormous seaplanes's defensive capabilities; " the B-stand has not the slightest value when attacked from the rear since, as was the case two days ago, attacking aircraft are able to fly some two metres lower than the Bv 222.."
 
According to "Encyclopedia Vol. VI" in May 1928 Fairchild executive Robins and Captain Gebel (?) brought one Fairchild FC-2 to Japan and performed exhibition flights for the Army and the Navy (with floats) hoping to sell the type. The "Encyclopedia" does not mention anything more but according to "Nihon no Koku-shi" they were unsuccessful.
Below are two photos from a vintage publication but I was unable to find any information regarding this sales pitch or the persons and the particular aircraft involved.
Interestingly an Army document dated May 1932 details a request to transfer the "Fairchild" aircraft currently located at the Shimoshizu Aviation School to Kwantung Army to be used as ambulance during the Manchurian Incident. An officer and an engineer were to be send to spend 90 days training with the type. The next Fairchild type of aircraft to arrive in Japan after the FC-2 was in 1933 when a Fairchild 22C-7b was brought over.
So what Fairchild aircraft was at Shimoshizu in 1932?
 
On September 1925 pilot Francesco De Pinedo with engineer Ernesto Campanelli landed with their Savoia S.16 flying boat named "Gennariello" at the Navy base in Kasumigaura. They had started from Rome on April 20 and covered 55,000 miles in six months flying to Japan via Australia and back to Italy!
After Australia they continued through the Philippines leaving Luzon on September 19 and reaching Tamsui in Taiwan the same day. On the 21st they departed early in the morning and reached shanghai at 14:00. Two days later departed from Shanghai and reached Mokpo in (South) Korea where they spent the night at a hotel and experienced the hospitality of Geisha for the very first time in their lives leaving the next day, September 24 at 12:40, with particularly fond memories. At 16:40 they had to make an emergency landing at Kushikino, Kagoshima prefecture but managed to reached Kagoshima on the 26th.
During their stay in Japan they were invited to numerous celebration parties and were presented with a medal by the Teikoku Hiko Kyokai (Imperial Aeronautic Association). They Italian aviators left Kasumigaura on October 17 and reached Rome on November 7.
 
Love the Kingfisher. Such a workhorse for the fleet. In many ways (for a predecessor aircraft... not all) it was better than its successor, the Seamew.

I'd love to know what was shot down by a Kingfisher.... I would have given that pilot 'honorary ace' status.
 
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