Republic Seabee Design Analysis

[MIflyer]

A design analysis of the Republic Seabee from Aviation Magazine of May 1946.

 

[Capt. Vick]

I was always amazed at the low number of stamped parts that made up this design.

 

[flypaper2222]

As A child I lived close to where a few of these aircraft were based and when they were on land would walk around them in wonder. All these years later I still think this is one of the best looking aircraft to take to the sky.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

All these years later I still think this is one of the best looking aircraft to take to the sky.

Beauty is as beauty does. Built like a brick privy, the SeaBee flew like one, with its "frightenin' Franklin" engine. An acquaintance of mine died when he followed the wrong checklist and made a water landing with his wheels down.
OTOH, it was kinda cool to be able to land on the water, open the forward door and dive right in. Better throw out a sea anchor, as the bird would drift in the wind faster than you can swim. And you had to remember that you could get into small lakes you couldn't get out of.
Cheers
Wes

 

[MIflyer]

One nice Saturday in 1989 I got to the airfield in Maryland where I based my Ercoupe, looked around and thought, "Hey! Not much traffic in the pattern! I should go up and shoot a few landings."

Then I realized there was NO traffic, which was more than odd on a Saturday morning and decided to look around a bit.

It turned out that a student on his first solo in a Cessna 152 had gone off the left side of the runway with full power during his touch and go. Sitting on that side was an Ercoupe with it wings removed and next to it a Seabee, also with its wings removed. The 152 went right through the Ercoupe and into the side of the Seabee, ending up standing on its nose up against ths Seabee. There was almost nothing left of the Ercoupe other than scrap metal. The Seabee had a huge dent in the side where the Cessna hit it. Also parked nearby was a Meyers 200 fuselage that was being restored and boat on a trailer. The boat spun around from the impact and knocked the whole tail off the Meyers.

I later saw them strip all the useful parts off the Seabee fuselage and toss it in the woods next to the airport. I knew of another airport in the area where the forward section of a Seabee was sitting abandoned. 10 years later I told a guy who was looking to build up a Seabee where to find those parts.

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[XBe02Drvr]

There was almost nothing left of the Ercoupe other than scrap metal.

When I was an "airport kid" PITA, I used to marvel at how flimsy-looking Ercoupe fuselage and wing parts looked. I thought it pretty amusing that as a skinny, wimpy14 year old, I could easily pick up the entire tail cone and empenage of a wrecked Ercoupe, of which there were several lying about the place. A long since defunct FBO had been a dealer and sold Ercoupes to a number of individuals who had no business being in an airplane. Fortunately they bent a lot of tin and a couple of people, but didn't kill anyone.
Cheers,
Wes

 

[MIflyer]

A friend of my brother flew P-51's with the USAAF during WWII and the ANG after the war. One day he was up flying and got a radio call to go investigate the reported crash of an aircraft that had hit a mountain. He headed that way, figuring there could not be any survivors, but he would go take a look anyway. But when he arrived over the crash site he found that it was an Ercoupe and that the cockpit section was the only thing left intact. "It looked like the escape pod for an F-111, sitting there all by itself, with the pilot standing next to it, waving." He told himself then that maybe if he wanted to buy his own airplane he might better think about getting one of those.