BOATS OF THE AIR
DAVID WRAGG
The flying boat and the seaplane combined luxury travel with previously unheard-of speeds, a rare phenomenon in passenger transport, and for many people they epitomize the glamour of the early days of aviation. In the years between the two world wars they pioneered the long inter-continental air routes, while seaplanes from Britain, the United States and Italy competed for the world air speed record and for the Schneider Trophy.
Boats of the Air is a history of the development of these aircraft and of the airlines, airforces and people who used them to ensure that they could operate over the wide ocean expanses and into rivers and lakes in tropical jungle. The story begins with the first attempts at building float-gliders during the early years of this century, before moving on to the years of ascendancy of the hydroaeroplane and bringing the story up-to-date with the many ambitious failures of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and the more modest role of these aircraft today.
This book also covers all aspects
of flying boats, seaplanes and amphibians in competition and aerial exploration, on humanitarian missions and at war. The photographs show the luxurious interiors of these craft whilst the text describes such practical projects as the catapulting of mail-carrying seaplanes from liners at sea, the inflight fuelling of transatlantic flying-boats and the incredible Short Mayo composite aircraft which still holds the world distance record for seaplanes.
In this the only pictorial history of the subject, David Wragg brings together in fascinating detail all aspects of these remarkable craft.
Front jacket photograph: Prototype Saunders-Roe Princess flying boat in trials during the early 1950s.
(Austin Brown/Aviation Picture
Library)