Aircraft Carriers: Boats With An Airport On Top

An aircraft carrier is a naval vessel from which aeroplanes may take off and land. They are essentially floating airfields, with catapults on the flight deck to assist in launching aircraft and retractable hooks that engage wires on the deck to help aircraft brake when landing. The first aircraft carrier was HMS Argus, built by the British Navy during the First World War.

Flying boats vs. floatplanes

A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull that allows it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that the fuselage of a flying boat is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Flying boats may also use under-wing floats or wing-like hull projections (called sponsons) for additional stability. Floatplanes, on the other hand, have a conventional aircraft fuselage fitted with external floats.

The quest for an aircraft that could take off or land from water began with floatplanes. The first patent for a flying machine with a boat hull and retractable landing gear was filed by Frenchman Alphonse Pénaud in 1876, but he failed to build one. Austrian Wilhelm Kress attempted to build a seaplane in 1898, but its two 30-horsepower Daimler engines were inadequate for takeoff, and it later sank when one of its two floats collapsed. The first successful powered floatplane flight was achieved by Frenchman Henri Fabre in 1910.

The first flying boat was constructed by François Denhaut in 1911-12. It had a fuselage forming a hull and used various designs to provide hydrodynamic lift at takeoff. Its first successful flight was on April 13, 1912. American aviator Glenn Curtiss also played a significant role in the development of flying boats, experimenting with floatplanes and amphibious aircraft before introducing his "flying-boats" in 1913.

During the First World War, flying boats grew in scale and capability, and they became the basis for international airlines in the interwar period. They were some of the largest aircraft of the first half of the 20th century and were commonly used for maritime patrol and air-sea rescue. However, during the Cold War, their popularity declined due to the difficulty of operating in inclement weather and the increasing availability of land-based runways. Today, true flying boats have largely been replaced by floatplanes or amphibious aircraft with wheels.

Seaplane vs. amphibian

A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft that can take off and land on water. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories: floatplanes and flying boats. The latter are generally larger and can carry more.

Seaplane vs Amphibian

A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft that can take off from and land on water. A seaplane that can also take off and land on airfields is called an amphibian or amphibious aircraft. Amphibians are a subclass of seaplanes.

The term "seaplane" is used to describe two types of air/water vehicles: the floatplane and the flying boat. A floatplane has slender floats mounted under the fuselage. The fuselage remains above water. Floatplanes are small aircraft and are limited by their inability to handle waves greater than 12 inches (0.31 m) in height.

In a flying boat, the main source of buoyancy is the fuselage, which acts like a ship's hull in the water. Most flying boats have small floats mounted on their wings to keep them stable. Not all small seaplanes are floatplanes, but most large seaplanes are flying boats, with their great weight supported by their hulls.

Floatplanes are usually aircraft that were originally designed to land on solid ground but have been modified for water take-offs and landings. The pontoons on a floatplane are the only part of the aircraft that comes into contact with the water. The hull of a floatplane is not designed to sit in the water.

Flying boats land on the water on the hull of the aircraft rather than pontoons or floats. They are generally larger aircraft than floatplanes, giving them the capacity to carry larger, heavier loads and more passengers. Because they are larger, flying boats usually have two or more engines and require a larger body of water for landing than floatplanes.

History

The Frenchman Alphonse Penaud filed the first patent for a flying machine with a boat hull and retractable landing gear in 1876 but failed to build one. Austrian Wilhelm Kress is credited with building the first seaplane, Drachenflieger, in 1898, although it failed to take off. The first successful powered seaplane flight was by Frenchman Henri Fabre in 1910.

In 1911-12, François Denhaut constructed the first seaplane with a fuselage forming a hull, using various designs to give hydrodynamic lift at take-off. Its first successful flight was on 13 April 1912.

In February 1911, the United States Navy took delivery of the Curtiss Model E, and soon tested landings on and take-offs from ships using the Curtiss Model D. Throughout 1910 and 1911, American pioneering aviator Glenn Curtiss developed his floatplane into the successful Curtiss Model D land-plane, which used a larger central float and sponsons. Combining floats with wheels, he made the first amphibian flights in February 1911 and was awarded the first Collier Trophy for US flight achievement. From 1912 his experiments with a hulled seaplane resulted in the 1913 Model E and Model F, which he called "flying-boats".

Decline of Seaplanes

The use of seaplanes gradually tapered off after World War II, partially because of the investments in airports during the war but mainly because landplanes were less constrained by weather conditions that could result in sea states being too high to operate seaplanes. In the 21st century, seaplanes maintain a few niche uses, such as for aerial firefighting, air transport around archipelagos, and access to undeveloped or roadless areas, some of which have numerous lakes.

The ability to land on water became less of an advantage owing to the considerable increase in the number and length of land-based runways during World War II. Furthermore, the commercial competitiveness of seaplanes diminished as their design compromised aerodynamic efficiency and speed in order to accommodate waterborne takeoff and landing. New land-based airliners such as the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-4 were developed with comparable reliability, speed, and long-range.

Examples of Amphibians

• The Viking Air DHC-6 Twin Otter and Cessna Caravan utility aircraft have landing gear options that include amphibious floats.
• The Canadair CL-215 is an example of an amphibious seaplane that was built as a firefighting aircraft.

Aircraft carriers

An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase. It is equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for supporting, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft.

The first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, was developed from the Proteus-class collier Jupiter and served as an unarmed testbed for deck and flight operations throughout the 1920s. The experiences that took place on the USS Langley set the stage for fleet aircraft carriers that followed.

The first US Navy ship designed and built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier was the USS Ranger, commissioned in 1934. During World War II, carriers played a dominant role in the Pacific, with notable appearances at the battles of Midway, Coral Sea, and Leyte Gulf.

Carriers built after World War II were larger and came equipped with armoured flight decks. The use of jet aircraft on carriers also posed significant changes, due to their greater weight, slower acceleration, higher landing speeds, and greater fuel consumption. Steam-powered catapults and angled flight decks were installed to counter the much more powerful aircraft.

In 1961, the first nuclear-powered carrier, the USS Enterprise, was commissioned. Nuclear power has since become common in aircraft carriers, as it allows for greater speed and the ability to operate for long periods without refuelling.

Today, aircraft carriers are the centerpiece of modern naval warfare and have significant diplomatic influence. They are treated as capital ships of fleets, a role previously held by the galleon, ship-of-the-line, and battleship.

The US Navy has the largest fleet of aircraft carriers in the world, with eleven supercarriers currently in service. China and India each have two STOBAR carriers in service, and the UK has two STOVL carriers. France and Russia each operate a single medium-sized carrier.

Naval aircraft

Naval aviation refers to the use of air power by navies, either from warships that carry aircraft or from land bases. Naval aviation units are typically deployed using aircraft carriers. These aircraft are designed for many purposes, including air-to-air combat, surface attack, submarine attack, search and rescue, cargo transport, weather observation, reconnaissance, and wide-area command and control duties.

The first pilots for the Royal Navy were transferred from the Royal Aero Club in June 1910, and an airfield at Eastchurch became the Naval Flying School—the first such facility in the world. The first pilots for the US Navy came a few years later, when pioneer aviator Glenn Curtiss contracted with the Navy to demonstrate that planes could take off from and land on ships at sea. One of Curtiss's pilots, Eugene Ely, took off from the cruiser USS Birmingham off the coast of Virginia in November 1910.

During World War I, the Royal Navy used HMS Furious to experiment with the use of wheeled aircraft on ships. HMS Argus was the first example of the now-standard aircraft carrier, with a full-length flight deck. HMS Hermes, which was laid down in 1918, was the first aircraft carrier to feature a starboard-side control tower island.

In the interwar period, the US Navy attempted to dissolve its Naval Aeronautics program, but Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt and others successfully maintained it. The first aircraft carrier entered the US fleet in 1922 with the conversion of the collier USS Jupiter, which was recommissioned as the USS Langley.

During World War II, naval aviation emerged as the decisive element in the war at sea, with Japan, the US, and Britain as the principal users. Battles between fleets were increasingly fought out of gun range by aircraft. The Japanese battleship Yamato, the heaviest battleship ever built, was first turned back by light escort carrier aircraft and later sunk without air cover.

In the post-war period, jet aircraft were used on aircraft carriers. The first jet landing on a carrier was made by Lt Cdr Eric 'Winkle' Brown, who landed on HMS Ocean in a modified de Havilland Vampire in December 1945. The angled flight deck was also invented in the early 1950s, first tested on HMS Triumph.

History of flying boats

The quest for an aircraft that could take off or land on water began with float planes, which are not flying boats. The Frenchman Alphonse Pénaud filed the first patent for a flying machine with a boat hull and retractable landing gear in 1876 but failed to build one. Austrian Wilhelm Kress attempted to build the first successful seaplane in 1898, but its two 30 hp Daimler engines were inadequate for takeoff, and it later sank when one of its two floats collapsed.

On 6 June 1905, Gabriel Voisin took off and landed on the River Seine with a towed kite glider on floats. Voisin later built a powered floatplane in partnership with Louis Blériot, but the machine was unsuccessful.

In 1910, Frenchman Henri Fabre flew the first successful powered floatplane, the Gnome Omega–powered Hydravion, a trimaran floatplane. In February 1911, American pioneering aviator Glenn Curtiss made the first amphibian flights. Throughout 1910 and 1911, Curtiss developed his floatplane into the successful Curtiss Model D land-plane, which used a larger central float and sponsons. From 1912, his experiments resulted in the 1913 Model E and Model F, which he called "flying-boats".

In 1911–12, François Denhaut constructed the first flying boat, with a fuselage forming a hull, using various designs to give hydrodynamic lift at takeoff. Its first successful flight was on 13 April 1912.

In Britain, Captain Edward Wakefield and Oscar Gnosspelius began to explore the feasibility of flight from water in 1908. They decided to make use of Windermere in the Lake District, England's largest lake, to test their floatplane. Gnosspelius's aircraft crashed into the lake, but Wakefield's pilot successfully took off and flew at a height of 50 feet before landing on the lake's surface.

In 1913, the Daily Mail newspaper put up a £10,000 prize for the first non-stop aerial crossing of the Atlantic. American businessman Rodman Wanamaker commissioned the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company to design and build an aircraft capable of making the flight. This brought Curtiss into contact with John Cyril Porte, a retired Royal Navy lieutenant, aircraft designer, and test pilot. Porte and Curtiss' plans were interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. Porte sailed for England on 4 August 1914 and rejoined the Navy as a member of the Royal Naval Air Service. Appointed Squadron Commander of Royal Navy Air Station Hendon, he soon convinced the Admiralty of the potential of flying boats and was put in charge of the naval air station at Felixstowe in 1915. Porte persuaded the Admiralty to commandeer the America, a conventional biplane designed under Porte's supervision, and a sister craft from Curtiss.

Porte made advances in flying boat design and developed a practical hull design with the distinctive "Felixstowe notch". Porte's innovation enabled the craft to overcome suction from the water more quickly and break free for flight much more easily. This made operating the craft far safer and more reliable. Porte then designed a similar hull for the larger Curtiss H-12 flying boat, which was used as the basis for all future designs. It entered production as the Felixstowe F.2A, being used as a patrol aircraft, with about 100 being completed by the end of World War I.

In September 1919, British company Supermarine started operating the first flying boat service in the world, from Woolston to Le Havre in France, but it was short-lived.

A Curtiss NC-4 became the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1919, crossing via the Azores. Before the development of highly reliable aircraft, the ability to land on water was a desirable safety feature for transoceanic travel.

In 1923, the first successful commercial flying boat service was introduced with flights to and from the Channel Islands. The British aviation industry was experiencing rapid growth, and in 1924 the government ordered five aviation companies to merge to form the state-owned Imperial Airways of London (IAL). IAL became the international flag-carrying British airline, providing flying boat passenger and mail transport links between Britain and South Africa.

During the 1930s, flying boats made it possible to have regular air transport between the U.S. and Europe, opening up new air travel routes to South America, Africa, and Asia. Foynes, Ireland, and Botwood, Newfoundland, were the termini for many early transatlantic flights. In areas where there were no airfields for land-based aircraft, flying boats could stop at small island, river, lake, or coastal stations to refuel and resupply. The Pan Am Boeing 314 Clipper planes brought exotic destinations like the Far East within reach of air travelers and came to represent the romance of flight.

By 1931, mail from Australia was reaching Britain in just 16 days – less than half the time taken by sea. In that year, Qantas and IAL were successful with a joint bid to run new passenger and mail services between the ends of the British Empire. A company under combined ownership was then formed, Qantas Empire Airways. The new ten-day service between Rose Bay, New South Wales, and Southampton was such a success with letter-writers that before long, the volume of mail was exceeding aircraft storage space.

During World War II, flying boats were commonly utilized to conduct various tasks, from anti-submarine patrol to air-sea rescue and gunfire spotting for battleships. They would recover downed airmen and operate as scout aircraft over the vast distances of the Pacific Theater and the Atlantic, locating enemy vessels and sinking numerous submarines. In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck was discovered by a PBY Catalina flying out of Castle Archdale Flying boat base in Northern Ireland. A flight of Catalinas also spotted the Japanese fleet approaching Midway Island, beginning the Battle of

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