Aviation's earliest pioneers looked to bodies of water to serve as runways for take-offs and landings, a practice that began in earnest in the 1910s. Seaplanes pioneered transatlantic air routes, and were used in World War I. They continued to develop before World War II, and saw widespread use. After World War II, the proliferation of land airstrips made water landings more applicable in special circumstances. The practice continued via niche applications, like accessing otherwise remote areas, fighting forest fires, and serving as maritime patrol vessels.
Early pioneers , air pioneer, next to
Henry Farman (left), in 1908. The quest for an aircraft that could take off or land from water began with float planes, which are not flying boats. In 1876, Frenchman
Alphonse Pénaud filed the first patent for a flying machine with a boat hull and retractable landing gear, but failed to build one. Austrian
Wilhelm Kress is credited by some with attempting to build the first successful seaplane
Drachenflieger, a
floatplane, in 1898, although its two 30 hp
Daimler engines were inadequate for take-off, and it later sank when one of its two floats collapsed. On 6 June 1905,
Gabriel Voisin took off and landed on the River
Seine with a towed kite glider on floats. The first of his unpowered flights was . He later built a powered floatplane in partnership with
Louis Blériot, but the machine was unsuccessful. Other pioneers also attempted to attach floats to aircraft in Britain, Australia, France, and the US. On 28 March 1910, Frenchman
Henri Fabre flew the first successful powered seaplane, the
Gnome Omega-powered
hydravion, a trimaran
floatplane. Fabre's first successful take off and landing by a powered seaplane inspired other aviators, and he designed floats for several other flyers. The first hydro-aeroplane competition was held in
Monaco in March 1912, featuring aircraft using floats from Fabre, Curtiss, Tellier and Farman. This led to the first scheduled seaplane passenger services, at
Aix-les-Bains, using a five-seat Sanchez-Besa from 1 August 1912. In 1911−12,
François Denhaut constructed the first seaplane with a fuselage forming a hull, using various designs to give
hydrodynamic lift at take-off. Its first successful flight was on 13 April 1912. In 1913, the Wright company also came out with the Wright Model G Aerboat, which was a seaplane with an enclosed cabin (a first for the company);the chief engineer of this version was
Grover Loening. In Britain, Captain Edward Wakefield and
Oscar Gnosspelius began to explore the feasibility of flight from water in 1908. They decided to make use of
Windermere in the
Lake District, England's largest
lake. In 1909, the duo attended the Blackpool Aviation Week, where Wakefield “put forward the theory of flying from water, but was ridiculed by the experts.” The rejection spurred the two men into collaborating on their own individual hydro aeroplane designs. To test their floatplanes, they decided to make use of
Windermere in the
Lake District—England's largest
lake. Gnosspelius’ first attempts to fly attracted large crowds, although the aircraft, named Gnosspelius No.1, failed to take off due to its underpowered engines. The unsuccessful demonstration prompted Gnosspelius to re-design the floats that had been crafted for him by boat builders Borwick & Sons, and had incorporated features of Borwick's successful speed-boat hulls. Meanwhile, Wakefield ordered a floatplane similar to the design of the 1910 Fabre Hydravion. By November 1911, both Gnosspelius and Wakefield had aircraft capable of flight from water and awaited suitable weather conditions. Gnosspelius's flight was short-lived, as the aircraft crashed into the lake. Conversely, Wakefield's pilot took advantage of a light northerly wind, and successfully took off and flew at a height of 50 feet to Ferry Nab, where he made a wide turn and returned for a perfect landing on the lake's surface. In Switzerland,
Émile Taddéoli equipped the
Dufaux 4 biplane with swimmers and successfully took off in 1912. A seaplane was used during the
Balkan Wars in 1913, when a Greek "Astra Hydravion" did a reconnaissance of the Turkish fleet and dropped four bombs.
Birth of an industry In 1913, the
Daily Mail newspaper
put up a £10,000 prize for the
first non-stop aerial crossing of the Atlantic, which was soon "enhanced by a further sum" from the ''Women's Aerial League of Great Britain''. American businessman
Rodman Wanamaker became determined that the prize should go to an American aircraft and commissioned the
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company to design and build an aircraft capable of making the flight. Curtiss's development of the
Flying Fish flying boat in 1913 brought him into contact with
John Cyril Porte, a retired
Royal Navy Lieutenant, aircraft designer and test pilot who was to become an influential British aviation pioneer. Recognising that many of the early accidents were attributable to a poor understanding of handling while in contact with the water, the pair's efforts went into developing practical hull designs to make the transatlantic crossing possible. The two years before World War I's breakout also saw the privately produced pair of
Benoist XIV biplane flying boats, designed by
Thomas W. Benoist, initiate the start of the first heavier-than-air airline service anywhere in the world, and the first airline service of any kind at all in the United States. At the same time, the British boat-building firm
J. Samuel White of
Cowes on the
Isle of Wight set up a new aircraft division and produced a flying boat in the United Kingdom. This was displayed at the London Air Show at Olympia in 1913. In that same year, a collaboration between the S. E. Saunders boatyard of
East Cowes and the
Sopwith Aviation Company produced the "Bat Boat", an aircraft with a
consuta laminated hull that could operate from land or on water, which today is called an
amphibious aircraft. for the U.S. Navy, which rapidly resulted in the
America, designed under Porte's supervision following his study and rearrangement of the flight plan; the aircraft was a conventional
biplane design with two-bay, unstaggered wings of unequal span with two pusher
inline engines mounted side-by-side above the
fuselage in the interplane gap. Wingtip pontoons were attached directly below the lower wings near their tips. The design (later developed into the
Model H) resembled Curtiss's earlier flying boats but was built considerably larger so it could carry enough fuel to cover . The three crew members were accommodated in a fully enclosed cabin. Trials of the
America began 23 June 1914 with Porte also as Chief Test Pilot; testing soon revealed serious shortcomings in the design; it was under-powered, so the engines were replaced with more powerful tractor engines. There was also a tendency for the nose of the aircraft to try to submerge as engine power increased while taxiing on water. This phenomenon had not been encountered before, since Curtiss's earlier designs had not used such powerful engines nor large fuel/cargo loads and so were relatively more buoyant. In order to counteract this effect, Curtiss fitted
fins to the sides of the bow to add hydrodynamic lift, but soon replaced these with
sponsons, a type of underwater pontoon mounted in pairs on either side of a hull. These sponsons (or their engineering equivalents) and the flared, notched hull would remain a prominent feature of flying-boat hull design in the decades to follow. With the problem resolved, preparations for the crossing resumed. While the craft was found to handle "heavily" on takeoff, and required rather longer take-off distances than expected, the
full moon on 5 August 1914 was selected for the trans-Atlantic flight; Porte was to pilot the
America with
George Hallett as co-pilot and mechanic.
World War I (1914–1918) Curtiss and Porte's plans were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. Porte sailed for England on 4 August 1914 and rejoined the Navy as a member of the
Royal Naval Air Service. Appointed Squadron Commander of
Royal Navy Air Station Hendon, he soon convinced the Admiralty of the potential of flying boats and was put in charge of the
naval air station at
Felixstowe in 1915. Porte persuaded the
Admiralty to commandeer (and later, purchase) the
America and a sister craft from Curtiss. This was followed by an order for 12 more similar aircraft, one Model H-2 and the remaining as
Model H-4s. Four examples of the latter were assembled in the UK by
Saunders. All of these were similar to the design of the
America and, indeed, were all referred to as
Americas in Royal Navy service. The engines, however, were changed from the under-powered 160 hp Curtiss engines to 250 hp
Rolls-Royce Falcon engines. The initial batch was followed by an order for 50 more (totalling 64
Americas overall during the war). One flying boat pilot, Major Theodore Douglas Hallam, wrote that they were "comic machines, weighing well under two tons; with two comic engines giving, when they functioned, 180 horsepower; and comic control, being nose heavy with engines on and tail heavy in a glide." , a WW1 flying boat At Felixstowe, Porte made advances in flying-boat design and developed a practical hull design with the distinctive "Felixstowe notch". Porte's first design to be implemented in Felixstowe was the
Felixstowe Porte Baby, a large, three-engined
biplane flying boat, powered by one central pusher and two outboard tractor
Rolls-Royce Eagle engines. Porte modified an H-4 with a new hull whose improved hydrodynamic qualities made taxiing, take-off and landing much more practical and called it the
Felixstowe F.1. Porte's innovation of the "Felixstowe notch" enabled the craft to overcome suction from the water more quickly and break free for flight much more easily. This made operating the craft far safer and more reliable. The "notch" breakthrough would soon after evolve into a "step", with the rear section of the lower hull sharply recessed above the forward lower hull section, and that characteristic became a feature of both flying-boat hulls and seaplane floats. The resulting aircraft would be large enough to carry sufficient fuel to fly long distances and could berth alongside ships to take on more fuel. Porte then designed a similar hull for the larger
Curtiss H-12 flying boat which, while larger and more capable than the H-4s, shared failings of a weak hull and poor water handling. The combination of the new Porte-designed hull, this time fitted with two steps, with the wings of the H-12 and a new tail, and powered by two
Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, was named the Felixstowe F.2 and first flew in July 1916, proving greatly superior to the Curtiss on which it was based. It was used as the basis for all future designs. It entered production as the Felixstowe F.2A, being used as a patrol aircraft, with about 100 being completed by the end of World War I. Another seventy were built, and these were followed by two F.2c, which were built at Felixstowe. In February 1917, the first prototype of the
Felixstowe F.3 was flown. It was larger and heavier than the F.2, giving it greater range and heavier bomb load, but poorer agility. Approximately 100 Felixstowe F.3s were produced before the end of the war. , designed by
Lieutenant Commander John Cyril Porte at the
Seaplane Experimental Station,
Felixstowe The
Felixstowe F.5 was intended to combine the good qualities of the F.2 and F.3, with the prototype first flying in May 1918. The prototype showed superior qualities to its predecessors but, to ease production, the production version was modified to make extensive use of components from the F.3, which resulted in lower performance than the F.2A or F.5. Porte's final design at the
Seaplane Experimental Station was the 123-foot-span five-engined
Felixstowe Fury triplane (also known as the "Porte Super-Baby" or "PSB"). F.2, F.3, and F.5 flying boats were extensively employed by the Royal Navy for coastal patrols and to search for German
U-boats. In 1918, they were towed on lighters towards the northern German ports to extend their range; on 4 June 1918, this resulted in three F.2As engaging in a dogfight with ten German seaplanes, shooting down two confirmed and four probables at no loss. Before the development of highly reliable aircraft, the ability to land on water was a desirable safety feature for transoceanic travel. During the 1920s, the
Royal Air Force (RAF) Far East flight performed a series of "showing the flag" long-distance formation flights using the newly developed
Supermarine Southampton. Perhaps the most notable of these flights was a expedition conducted during 1927 and 1928; it was carried out by four Southamptons of the
Far East Flight, setting out from Felixstowe via the Mediterranean and India to
Singapore. Both the RAF and Supermarine acquired considerable acclaim from these flights, as well as proving that flying boats had evolved to become reliable means of long-distance transport. In 1923, the first successful commercial flying boat service was introduced with flights to and from the
Channel Islands. The British aviation industry was experiencing rapid growth. The Government decided that nationalization was necessary and ordered five aviation companies to merge to form the state-owned
Imperial Airways of London (IAL). IAL became the international
flag-carrying British airline, providing flying boat passenger and mail transport links between Britain and
South Africa using aircraft such as the
Short S.8 Calcutta. In 1928, four
Supermarine Southampton flying boats of the
RAF Far East flight arrived in
Melbourne,
Australia. The flight was considered proof that flying boats had become a reliable means of long-distance transport. S.A. at
Zürichhorn water airport,
Uetliberg in the background (c. 1920) In the 1930s, flying boats made it possible to have regular air transport between the U.S. and Europe, opening up new air travel routes to South America, Africa, and Asia.
Foynes,
Ireland and
Botwood,
Newfoundland and Labrador were the terminals for many early transatlantic flights. In areas where there were no airfields for land-based aircraft, flying boats could stop at small river, lake or coastal stations to refuel and resupply. The
Pan Am Boeing 314 "Clipper" flying boats brought new exotic destinations like the Far East within reach and came to represent the romance of flight. By 1931, mail from Australia was reaching Britain in just 16 days – less than half the time taken by sea. In that year, government tenders on both sides of the world invited applications to run new passenger and mail services between the ends of the
British Empire, and
Qantas and IAL were successful with a joint bid. A company under combined ownership was then formed, Qantas Empire Airways. The new ten-day service between
Rose Bay, New South Wales (near
Sydney), and
Southampton was such a success with letter-writers that before long the volume of mail was exceeding aircraft storage space. A better solution to the problem was sought by the British government during the early 1930s, who released a specification calling for a new large aircraft capable of carrying up to 24 passengers in spacious comfort along with adequate room for
airmail or freight while simultaneously being capable of a
cruising speed of 170 mph and a range of at least 700 miles; the capacity for an extended range of 2,000 miles to serve the
North Atlantic route was also stipulated. Originally intended for use by IAL, partner Qantas agreed to the initiative and undertook to purchase six of the new
Short S23 "C" class or "Empire" flying boats as well. Being ordered from aviation manufacturer
Short Brothers, the Empire was reportedly hailed as being "one of the world's boldest experiments in aviation", while early sceptics referred to the order less favourably as being a 'gamble'. over a seaport town in the Baltic, 1930 ", just before the first trans-Atlantic flight, August 1938 Delivering the mail as quickly as possible generated a lot of competition and some innovative designs. One variant of the Short Empire flying boats was the strange-looking "
Maia and Mercury". It was a four-engined
floatplane "Mercury" (the winged messenger) fixed on top of "Maia", a heavily modified Short Empire flying boat. Unfortunately this was of limited usefulness, and the Mercury had to be returned from America by ship. The Mercury did set a number of distance records before
in-flight refuelling was adopted.
Sir Alan Cobham devised a method of in-flight refuelling in the 1930s. In the air, the Short Empire could be loaded with more fuel than it could take off with. It had wing-like protrusions from the fuselage, called
sponsons, to stabilize it on the water without the need for wing-mounted outboard floats. This feature was pioneered by
Claudius Dornier during the First World War on his Dornier Rs. I giant flying boat, and perfected on the
Dornier Wal in 1924. The enormous Do X was powered by 12 engines and once carried 170 persons as a publicity stunt. Wals were used by explorers, for a number of pioneering flights, and by the military in many countries. Though having first flown in 1922, from 1934 to 1938 Wals operated the over-water sectors of the
Deutsche Luft Hansa South Atlantic Airmail service.
World War II The military value of flying boats was well recognized, and every country bordering on water operated them in a military capacity at the outbreak of the
Second World War. Flying boats such as the
PBM Mariner patrol bomber,
PBY Catalina,
Short Sunderland, and
Grumman Goose were procured in large numbers. The Sunderland, which was developed in parallel to the civilian Empire flying boat, was one of the most powerful and widely used flying boats throughout the conflict, while Catalinas were one of the most produced ASW of the war, with over 2,661 being produced in the US alone. Flying boats were commonly utilized to conduct various tasks, from
anti-submarine patrol to
air-sea rescue and
gunfire spotting for battleships. They would recover downed airmen and operate as scout aircraft over the vast distances of the
Pacific Theater and the
Atlantic, locating enemy vessels and sinking numerous submarines. A flight of Catalinas spotted the Japanese fleet approaching
Midway Island, beginning the
Battle of Midway. On 3 April 1940, a single Sunderland operating off
Norway was attacked by six German
Junkers Ju 88C fighters; during the engagement, it shot one down and damaged another until it retreated and drove off the rest. The Germans reputedly nicknamed the Sunderland the
Fliegendes Stachelschwein ("Flying Porcupine") due to its defensive firepower. Sunderlands in the Mediterranean theatre proved themselves on multiple high-profile occasions, flying many evacuation missions during the
German seizure of
Crete, each carrying as many as 82 passengers. One Sunderland flew the reconnaissance mission to observe the Italian fleet at anchor in
Taranto before the famous
Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm's
torpedo attack on 11 November 1940. in June 1944 The largest flying boat of the war was the
Blohm & Voss BV 238, which was also the heaviest plane to fly during the Second World War and the largest aircraft built and flown by any of the
Axis powers. Only the first prototype ever flew, commencing flight trials in April 1944. Months later, it was
strafed and partially sunk while moored on
Lake Schaal, to the east of
Hamburg; it never returned to flight, instead being intentionally sunk in deep water after the end of the conflict. , 1941–1945|right The
Imperial Japanese Navy operated what has been often described as the best flying boat of the conflict, the
Kawanishi H8K. Its design was based upon its immediate predecessor, the
Kawanishi H6K, but was a considerably larger and longer-ranged aircraft designed at the request of the Navy just prior to the outbreak of war. On the night of 4 March 1942, two H8Ks conducted the
second raid on Pearl Harbor, refuelling en route by
submarine at
French Frigate Shoals in order to achieve the necessary range; poor visibility caused this attack on Pearl Harbor to fail to accomplish any significant damage. An improved H8K2 variant of the type, featuring extremely heavy defensive armament, was also introduced. In November 1939, IAL was restructured into three separate companies:
British European Airways,
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), and
British South American Airways (which merged with BOAC in 1949), with the change being made official on 1 April 1940. BOAC continued to operate flying boat services from the (slightly) safer confines of
Poole Harbour during wartime, returning to
Southampton in 1947. The Martin Company produced the prototype
XPB2M Mars based on their PBM Mariner patrol bomber, with flight tests between 1941 and 1943. The Mars was converted by the Navy into a transport aircraft designated the XPB2M-1R. Satisfied with the performance, 20 of the modified JRM-1 Mars were ordered. The first of the five production Mars flying boats entered service ferrying cargo to
Hawaii and the Pacific Islands on 23 January 1944. Following the end of the conflict, the Navy opted to scaled back their order, buying only the five aircraft. The five Mars were completed, and the last delivered in 1947. The U.S. used several 4-engine flying boats during World War II, including those that had been operating as civilian airliners. This included five
Boeing B-314 Clippers, four more as the C-98s; two
Martin M-130 Clippers,a Martin XPB2M-1/XPB2M-1R prototype, and one
JRM-1 Mars; three
Sikorsky VS-44s (JR2S-1). However, the main 4-engined flying boat of the U.S. forces was the
PB2Y Coronado, of which nearly 220 were used in several versions:maritime patrol, bombing, medical/hospital transport, and for regular cargo; it also served with British forces in the
Battle for the Atlantic. One of the features of flying boats that was useful for search and rescue, was the ability to land on the water and not only pull out people from the water but stay there. One of the famous cases of this was the sinking of the , which went down on 31 July 1945, leaving hundreds of sailors in the water. Once it was realized it was missing, it was searched for, and the first to arrive was an amphibious
PBY-5A Catalina patrol plane flown by Lieutenant Commander (USN)
Robert Adrian Marks. Marks and his flight crew spotted the survivors and dropped life rafts; one raft was destroyed by the drop, while others were too far away from the exhausted crew. Against standing orders not to land in the open ocean, given the unique situation and lives at risk, Marks took a vote of his crew and decided to land the aircraft in swells. He was able to maneuver his craft to pick up 56 survivors. Space in the plane was limited, so Marks had men lashed to the wing with parachute cord. The aircraft was unflyable with so many on it but could still float. This protected many of the exhausted men from being eaten by sharks or drowning while waiting for the main rescue force to arrive. After nightfall, the destroyer escort , the first of seven rescue ships, used its searchlight as a beacon and instilled hope in those still in the water.
Cecil J. Doyle and six other ships picked up the remaining survivors. After the rescue, the PBY was sunk by
Cecil J. Doyle to scuttle it.
Post-War , this experimental transport was one of the largest heavier-than-air aircraft ever made at
Naval Air Station Jacksonville, circa 1943|left After the end of the Second World War, the use of flying boats rapidly declined for several reasons. The ability to land on water became less of an advantage owing to the considerable increase in the number and length of land based runways during the conflict. Furthermore the commercial competitiveness of flying boats diminished, as their design compromised aerodynamic efficiency and speed in order to accommodate waterborne takeoff and landing. New land-based airliners such as the
Lockheed Constellation and
Douglas DC-4 were developed with comparable reliability, speed, and long-range. The new landplanes were relatively easy to fly, and did not require the extensive pilot training programs mandated for seaplane operations. One of the 314's most experienced pilots said, "We were indeed glad to change to DC-4s, and I argued daily for eliminating all flying boats. The landplanes were much safer. No one in the operations department ... had any idea of the hazards of flying boat operations. The main problem now was lack of the very high level of experience and competence required of seaplane pilots". The
Hughes H-4 Hercules, in development in the U.S. during the war, was even larger than the BV 238 but it did not fly until 1947. The
Spruce Goose, as the 180-ton H-4 was nicknamed, was the largest flying boat ever to fly. Carried out during Senate hearings into Hughes' use of government funds on its construction, the short hop of about a mile at 70 ft above the water by the "Flying Lumberyard" was claimed by Hughes as the H-4's vindication. Cutbacks in expenditure after the war and the disappearance of its intended mission as a transatlantic transport left the H-4 with no purpose. Despite never flying again, a full-time crew of 300 workers maintained the H-4 in a flightworthy condition in a climate-controlled hangar up until Hughes' death in 1976. In early 1944, the British
Air Ministry issued a contract for the production of a small
jet-powered flying boat, the
Saunders-Roe SR.A/1, that was intended for use as an
air defence aircraft optimised for use in the Pacific theatre. By adopting jet propulsion for the flying boat, it was possible to design it with a hull, rather than making it a
floatplane, and thus eliminating the performance handicaps typically imposed upon floatplanes. It was projected to be capable of attaining speeds of up to 520 mph at 40,000 ft. However, due to the end of the conflict, pressure for the SR.A/1 quickly dissipated. During late 1950, shortly after the outbreak of the
Korean War, interest in the SR.A/1 programme was briefly resurrected amongst British and American officials, with whom data had been shared in the project. During the
Berlin Airlift (which lasted from June 1948 until August 1949) ten
Sunderlands and two
Hythes were used to transport goods from
Finkenwerder on the
Elbe near
Hamburg to isolated Berlin, landing on the Havelsee beside
RAF Gatow until it iced over. The Sunderlands were particularly used for transporting salt, as their airframes were already protected against corrosion from seawater. Transporting salt in standard aircraft risked rapid and severe structural corrosion in the event of a spillage. In addition, three
Aquila Airways flying boats were used during the airlift. While flight testing of the innovative and ambitious flying boat went relatively smoothly, determining that the Princess was indeed capable of achieving its envisioned performance figures, only one prototype of the type would ever fly. In 1951, BOAC performed an in-depth reevaluation of its standing requirements, and determined that the airline had no present need for the Princess, or any new large flying boat. The airline had already chosen to terminate its existing flying boat services during the previous year. Following the US Navy's withdrawal of support, Martin tried unsuccessfully to market the SeaMaster to the civilian market, rebranding it as the
SeaMistress, but the initiative picked up no takers. During the 1950s, the Japanese aircraft manufacturer
ShinMeiwa Industries conducted internal design studies into developing flying boats that would exhibit greater levels of seaworthiness than their predecessors. Shin Meiwa developed further flying boat concepts around this period, including the
Shin Meiwa MS (Medium Seaplane) a 300-passenger long-range flying boat with its own beaching gear; and the gargantuan
Shin Meiwa GS (Giant Seaplane) with a capacity of 1200 passengers seated on three decks.
Late 20th century The U.S. Navy continued to operate flying boats (notably the
Martin P5M Marlin) until the early 1970s. The Navy even experimented with the
Martin Seamaster jet-powered seaplane bomber, as well as the
Convair F2Y Sea Dart supersonic interceptor. The U.S. Coast Guard operated
HU-16 Albatross (affectionately known as the 'goat') well into the 1980s, retiring them as the airframes clocked out their flying 11 thousand flying hours. About twenty were still in service in the 1970s, and the last operation flight was in 1983. The aircraft was very popular with the Coast Guard due to its unique capabilities compared to other types, and was noted for its versatility, range, and ability to land on water which was especially useful for water rescues.
Ansett Australia operated a flying-boat service from Rose Bay to
Lord Howe Island until 1974, using
Short Sandringhams. On 18 December 1990, Pilot Tom Casey completed the first round-the-world flight in a floatplane with only water landings using a
Cessna 206 named Liberty II.
Twenty-first century developments The shape of the
Short Empire, a British flying boat of the 1930s was a harbinger of the shape of 20th century aircraft yet to come. Today, however, true flying boats have largely been replaced by floatplanes or
amphibious aircraft with wheels. The
Beriev Be-200 twin-jet amphibious aircraft is used for fighting forest fires. There are also several experimental/kit amphibians such as the
Volmer Sportsman,
Quikkit Glass Goose,
Airmax Sea Max,
Aeroprakt A-24, and
Seawind 300C. The
ShinMaywa US-2 is a large
STOL amphibious aircraft designed for air-sea rescue work, derived from the earlier US-1. The first example was delivered to the
Japan Maritime Self Defense Force in 2009; the service has replaced its US-1 fleet with the US-2. A civilian-orientated fire-fighting variant of the US-2 has also been designed and promoted to prospective customers. The
Canadair CL-415, an improved model of the
Canadair CL-215, remains in production during the twenty-first century. The type has been primarily used for forest fire suppression, but has also seen use in other capacities, such as a maritime patrol aircraft. The German company
Dornier Seawings, an off-shoot of the original Dornier company, has repeatedly announced plans to launch production of its
SeaStar composite flying boat. In February 2016, Dornier launched the improved CD2 SeaStar. During the 2010s, the state-owned company
Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) launched a program to develop a massive new amphibian, the
AVIC AG600. On 24 December 2017, it made its
maiden flight from
Zhuhai Jinwan Airport. The
ICON A5 is an amphibious aircraft in the
light-sport class. The
Progressive Aerodyne Searey is an amphibious aircraft in the
light-sport class, available as a kit built experimental or factory built aircraft. Shortly after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union two separated
scientific production associations (NPO) in
Samara started to make flying boats for a new developing Russian general aviation. Today NPO Aerovolga makes its
La series with La-8 being its latest while NPO Chaika makes
L series with L-65 being its latest in a line-up. ==Uses and operation==