While there was not much use for aircraft which could land on the water and land during the WW1 conflict, when WW2 started, it was real apparent that the U.S. military was going to need aircraft to rescue downed flyer's in the vast oceans of the world.
In 1942, the only acceptable aircraft were the Grumman "Goose" and the consolidated PBY series of aircraft. It is interesting to note that the "Goose" was used extensionally for not only high ranking transport personell, but was used by the U.S. Coast Guard up and down the Eastern Sea board area, as both a "Recon", looking for German Subs, but as a trainer also.
(Image removed from quote.) This is a pic of an early "Goose" at Jacksonville Naval air station in 1942.
there were later models of the Grumman series of water aircraft, one of which is the Mallard, which the last one retired was in 1995!
(Image removed from quote.) This aircraft was used in Korean conflict and the Vietnam war, and was later re-designated the HU-16 Albatross.
Other pic's are:
(Image removed from quote.) The stories which involved the PBY aircraft are many and some made historic footnotes in history, one of the most famous was the part the PBY's played in finding the Japanese fleet during the battle of Midway. 7 PBY's were sent out looking for the fleet and each one had a call sign of "Strawberry", 1 thru 7 and "Strawberry 5" was the PBY which located the Japanese fleet. The crew of Strawberry 5 made a "boo-boo" by just saying, "many ships"!
But CNC new where each aircraft was assigned to go, so they had a good idea where they were, just not how far away. This was made famous in the Movie, "Midway", starring Charlton Heston and a host of other Hollywood stars.
I would guess the most interesting sea plane, which was not a air/sea rescue was the Martin P6M bomber. The U.S. Navy was trying to get a nuclear strike force aside from the U.S. Air force and they had Martin put this aircraft into production, but the ICBM submarines came along and that cancelled the P6M program.
(Image removed from quote.) This aircraft had no land capability and was serviced with surface ships and some submarines were equipped to service this aircraft.
(Image removed from quote.)
It would certainly be great to have the PBY aircraft in our Aces High game, but don't know how much trouble, computer wise, to install it in the game with the ability of landing both on water and land.
Here ya go, Earl:
Saunders-Roe SR.A/1
Role: Flying boat fighter
First flight: 16 July 1947
Retired: 1951
Experimental
Royal Air Force
Number built: 3
Crew: 1
Length: 50 ft 0 in (14.24 m)
Wingspan: 46 ft 0 in (14.02 m)
Height: 16 ft 9 in (5.11 m)
Wing area: 415 ft² (38.6 m²)
Empty weight: 11,262 lb (5,108 kg)
Loaded weight: 16,000 lb (7,273 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Metropolitan-Vickers Beryl MVB.2 turbojets, 3,850 lbf (17.2 kN) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 512 mph (445 knots, 824 km/h)
Endurance: 1 hour 48 min
Service ceiling: 48,000 ft (14,600 m)
Wing loading: 38.6 lb/ft² (188 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.48
Armament
Guns: 4x 20 mm Hispano Mk 5
Bombs: 2x 1000 lb (455 kg) bombs or rockets
Convair F2Y Sea Dart
Role: Seaplane fighter
First flight: 14 January 1953
Retired: 1957
Status: Cancelled, museum storage
United States Navy
Number built: 5
Crew: 1
Length: 52 ft 7 in (16 m)
Wingspan: 33 ft 8 in (10.3 m)
Height: 16 ft 2 in (4.9 m)
Wing area: 568 ft² (53 m²)
Empty weight: 12,625 lb (5,730 kg)
Loaded weight: 16,500 lb (7,480 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 21,500 lb (9,750 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Westinghouse J46-WE-2 {testbed: J43-WE-32 w/ 3,400 lbf each.[6]} turbojets, 6,100.[7] lbf (27 kN) each
Performance (estimated[8])
Maximum speed: 825 mph (1,325 km/h)
Range: 513 mi (446 nm, 826 km)
Service ceiling: 54,800 ft (16,700 m)
Rate of climb: 17,100 ft/min (86.7 m/s)
Wing loading: 29.0 lb/ft² (142 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: .56 (max loaded).96 (empty)
Armament
Guns: 4 × 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon
Rockets: Unguided rockets
Missiles: 2 × air-to-air missiles