During the Second World War, more than 9,000 flying boats were produced
by the main protagonists, fulfilling a multitude of roles including
maritime reconnaissance, bombing, fleet spotting, search and rescue,
long-range transport and communications. However, time was running out,
and a little over a decade after the end of the war, the military flying
boat would appear to be a dying breed on the verge of extinction. It
would be another twenty years before a new breed of multi-engine flying
boats would leave the drawing boards of leading aerospace companies to
successfully fulfil, not only their traditional military roles of
maritime reconnaissance and search and rescue, but one at which they
have proved to be very adept, that of aerial fire-fighting. Currently
the twin-turboprop powered twelve-seat Dornier Seastar amphibian is
being built in China, which is also developing the AG600 search and
rescue amphibian for the Chinese Navy. There have been a number of
successful turboprop conversion of piston-engine flying boats such as
the Grumman Mallard and Canadair CL-215 amphibians.In this book,
aviation historian David Oliver covers the little-known flying-boat
legacy of the Second World War, which includes jet fighter flying boat
projects; the jet maritime reconnaissance flying boat development in the
Cold War; the successes and failures of turbo-prop flying boats;
converted turbo-prop flying boats; as well as the new horizons for
flying boats in the twenty-first century.
