Flying boats: The AvGeeks hoping to keep these aviation relics in the air

27.10.2023 - 13:23 / thepointsguy.com

It's safe to say long-haul flying looks a lot different than it did some 80 or 90 years ago.

Today, flying thousands of miles often involves large jets like a Boeing 777, 787 or Airbus A350 aircraft ... and, for travelers more savvy with points and miles, perhaps even a lie-flat seat in business class.

In fact, it's almost hard to picture air travel from one continent to another was possible in the 1930s, just decades after the Wright Brothers' flight near Kitty Hawk.

There weren't many runways or airports, and our national aviation system was still in its infancy.

And yet, during that time, a unique type of aircraft with the capability to land anywhere on water flew between the U.S. and Europe, South America, the South Pacific and Asia.

In the years before World War II, amphibious aircraft known as "flying boats" frequented the skies, carrying passengers in fairly luxurious cabins, offering service meant to compete with the highest-end steam ships as a way of getting around.

Pioneered in France by Jean-Henri Fabre in 1910, flying boats were different from the seaplanes you might picture today, such as the small aircraft common in Alaska that land on floats (but are otherwise fairly traditional aircraft).

No, these were truly flying boats, with both wings and a hull, giving the aircraft buoyancy ... however heavy and drag-inducing that fuselage was in the air.

"They were ideal for flying long distances at a time and at a point when land-based planes weren't up to it yet," Bob Van der Linden, curator of air transportation at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, said.

Ferrying mail, business travelers and wealthy passengers with "astonishing range," as Van der Linden wrote in 2020, the aircraft flew passengers between Miami and Caracas, Venezuela, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. It also flew to Hawaii, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

Flying boats grew in popularity and frequency in the 1930s. Juan Trippe's Pan American Airways commissioned a fleet of them, flying between New York and Europe in amphibious Boeing 314 Clipper aircraft.

The carrier also proved to be the first major operator of regularly scheduled commercial service over the Pacific Ocean. The aircraft's ability to land on water was critical in the absence of robust airport infrastructure and was an added safety layer during the earlier years of air travel.

"They would fly hops, skips and jumps across the Pacific and come down near islands," Van der Linden told TPG. "They'd go from San Francisco to Hawaii, then Hawaii to Midway, Midway to Wake Island, Wake Island to Manila, and eventually Manila to Hong Kong."

However, the heyday of flying boats didn't last long.

World War II prompted the building of runways all around the world,