Air/Sea Rescue

[GScholz]

Do any European countries fly that a/c considering the number of fires there?

Yes. The Be 200 is certified in Europe and a number of countries in southern Europe have leased it from Russia during the forest fire seasons the past few years, including Portugal, Italy and Greece.

[Mongoose]

needing a boat to take off in a flying boat would make the second one quite redundant would you not agree?

  Not really.  The idea is that if a plane is shot down, you launch one of these seaplanes, or flying boat, to go find and rescue the pilot.  You can get a plane out there much faster than one of the other ships in your task force.  A seaplane tender would probably not be able to keep up with your carrier task force.  Thus, the idea to carry seaplanes on the carrier. 

  Looking at the pictures, I am thinking it would probably take up too much space on the CV.  But if you have a smaller version, it might be worth it.

[GScholz]

Cruiser scout planes could, and did, do that.

[Nashorn]

sea plane tenders could absolutely keep up with carrier groups, as many of them were converted from other ships including wait for it... aircraft carriers and battleships, but if I recall correctly a lot of the time in the open ocean, flying boats were just used to find the pilot drop supplies and rafts for them, and keep track of their location so that a ship could pick them up

[MiloMorai]

American seaplane tenders were hard pressed to hit 20kts and were new construction or converted freighters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_seaplane_carriers_by_country

[earl1937]

I logged about 140 hours in the HU-16s operating out of Guantanamo bay in 1976. Our last operational sortie, in fact, the last operational sortie for any Navy Amphibian, was flown on August 2, 1976. It was a SAR mission and I was aboard. After that flight, the aircraft was grounded pending being ferried to the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola. A ferry crew made the flight on August 13. These guys dragged the hull in the water in Pensacola Bay to lay claim to the last water landing. Of course, they didn't come to a stop, thus it was not accepted. The BuNo was 141266.

Our other old HU-16 was flown to Davis-Monthan for storage around May of 1976. Eventually, it was purchased, repainted, and had fake 4-blade props installed. It now sits in an artificial lagoon at Universal Studios, Orlando.

Great post and the kind of replies I like to see, getting first hand info on the aircraft which I feature. WW, someone told me that you flew the Douglas DC-6B for the Marines for a while and that you have some "Connie" time. If so, would love to see some posts from you concerning your experience in those aircraft.