Flyingboats Significant progress was made in naval flying in World War I. Three distinct categories of combat aircraft emerged: long-range overwater reconnaissance and antisubmarine aircraft operating from shore bases, shorter-range floatplane (so called because instead of wheeled undercarriages they floats to allow water landings) reconnaissance and fighter aircraft, and ship-borne aircraft. Long-range flying boats (so called because their fuselages were shaped like the hull of a boat) were used extensively by the British. These pioneered the technique of searching for submarines with methodical, mathematically developed search patterns. The French utilised…
Tag: Flyingboats
Lohner E
Lohner E The Lohner E was a reconnaissance flying boat built in Austria-Hungary during World War I. The “E” stood for Igo Etrich, one of the Lohner engineers. It was a conventional design for its day with biplane wings that featured slight sweepback, and an engine mounted pusher-fashion in the interplane gap. Its crew of two was seated in an open cockpit. Around 40 examples were built before production shifted to the more powerful L Plastic Kit Build Lohner E First flight: 10 November 1913 Number built: approximately 40 Crew:…
Aeromarine 40F
Aeromarine 40F The Aeromarine 40F was an American two-seat flying-boat training aircraft produced for the US Navy and built by the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company of Keyport, New Jersey. Fifty out of an original order for 200 were delivered before the end of World War I, with the remainder cancelled due to the armistice. The aircraft was a biplane with a pusher propeller. The pilot and instructor sat side by side. The Aeromarine 41 developed from the Aeromarine 40. At least some of the Model 40s were later converted…
Hansa-Brandenburg W.20
Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 The Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 was a German submarine-launched reconnaissance flying boat of the World War I era, designed and built by Hansa-Brandenburg. Due to the need to be stored and launched from a submarine aircraft carrier, the W.20 was a small single-seat biplane flying boat that was designed to be assembled and dismantled quickly. It had a slender hull on which was mounted a biplane wing and a conventional braced tailplane. It was powered by a seven-cylinder, 80 PS Oberursel U.0 rotary engine — basically a German-made near-clone of…
Macchi M.12
Macchi M.12 The Macchi M.12 was a flying boat bomber produced in small numbers in Italy in 1918. It had a conventional design generally similar to an enlarged version of other Macchi designs of the period and featured the Warren truss-style interplane struts that had been introduced on the Macchi M.9. A major difference however, was its twin-boom fuselage, each with a separate tailfin. The manufacturer Nieuport-Macchi, having acquired experience in seaplanes, began to study a new aircraft which he then offered to the Regia Marina under the designation of…