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| Canadair CL-415 operating on "Fire watch" out of Red Lake, Ontario, c. 2007 |
An amphibious or amphibian aircraft is an aircraft that can take off and land on either land or water. Amphibious aircraft are typically flying boats and floatplanes with retractable wheels. A flying boat is a specialised form of Aircraft that is designed to take off from and land on water using its Fuselage as a floating hull. A floatplane is a type of Seaplane, with slender Pontoons (known as "floats" mounted under the fuselage only the floats of a floatplane normally come
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Design
An example of a true amphibious aircraft is the Grumman Mallard, a flying boat, designed and built in the mid 1940s. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout A flying boat is a specialised form of Aircraft that is designed to take off from and land on water using its Fuselage as a floating hull. While floatplanes sometimes have floats that are interchangeable with wheeled landing gear (thereby producing a conventional land-based aircraft), it is rare for a floatplane to successfully incorporate retractable wheels whilst retaining its floats; the Grumman J2F Duck would be a notable example. A floatplane is a type of Seaplane, with slender Pontoons (known as "floats" mounted under the fuselage only the floats of a floatplane normally come The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading 20th century U WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout In either case, such amphibious aircraft would require small floats to be fitted underneath the wings: while these impose additional drag and weight on all seaplanes, amphibious aircraft also face the possibility that these floats would hit the runway during wheeled landings. A solution would be to have the aircraft fitted with wing-mounted retractable floats: the Grumman Mallard, for example, has retractable floats which also act as fuel tanks; these are removable for extended land/snow operations. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout
Usage
Amphibious aircraft are heavier and slower, more complex and more expensive to purchase and operate than comparable landplanes but are also more versatile. They do compete favorably, however, with helicopters that compete for the same types of jobs, if not quite as versatile. History Since 400 AD Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys. Amphibious aircraft have longer range than comparable helicopters, and can indeed achieve nearly the range of land-only airplanes,[1] as an airplane's wing is more efficient than a helicopter's lifting rotor. This makes an amphibious aircraft, such as the Grumman Albatross and the ShinMaywa US-1, ideal for long-range air-sea rescue tasks. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout In addition, amphibious aircraft are particularly useful as "bush" aircraft engaging in light transport in remote areas, where they are required to operate not only from airstrips, but also from lakes and rivers.
History
Amphibious aircraft have been built in various nations since the early 1920s, but it was not until World War II that saw their widespread service. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Grumman Corporation, a United States-based pioneer of amphibious aircraft, introduced a family of light utility amphibious aircraft - the Goose, the Widgeon and the Mallard - during the 1930s and the 1940s, originally intended for civilian market. The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading 20th century U The United States of America —commonly referred to as the WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout However the military potential of these very capable aircraft could not be ignored, and large numbers of these versatile aircraft were ordered by the Military of the United States and their allies during World War II, for service in air-sea rescue, anti-submarine patrol, and a host of other tasks. The United States Armed Forces are the overall unified military forces of the United States The concept of military amphibious aircraft was so successful that the PBY Catalina, which began life as a pure flying boat, introduced an amphibian variant during the war. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout
The capabilities of these amphibious aircraft were found to be particularly useful in the unforgiving terrains of Alaska and northern Canada, where some remained in civilian service long after the war, providing remote communities in these regions with vital links to the outside world. Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Nonetheless, with the increased availability of airstrips and amenities in remote communities, fewer amphibious aircraft are manufactured today than in the past, although a handful of manufacturers around the world still produce amphibious aircraft (flying boats with retractable landing gear), such as the Bombardier 415, and the Lake Amphibian family. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Lake Aircraft was a manufacturer of Amphibious aircraft. Their factory was in Sanford Maine, USA and their sales offices were located at Laconia /
References
See also
The Beriev Aircraft Company, formerly Beriev Design Bureau, is a Russian Aircraft manufacturer (design office prefix Be) specializing in The following is a list of Flying boats and Seaplanes. These do not include WIG or 'Wing-In-Ground'-effect craft also referred to as water-skimming wingships or in A seaplane is a Fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting on water A floatplane is a type of Seaplane, with slender Pontoons (known as "floats" mounted under the fuselage only the floats of a floatplane normally come A flying boat is a specialised form of Aircraft that is designed to take off from and land on water using its Fuselage as a floating hull.Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic