Viewing page 25 of 46

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

50 Years of Navel Aircraft

VP - FLYING BOAT

TWENTY YEARS ago patrol aviation and flying boats were practically synonymous.  Today, land based VP types are taking over the majority of current VP operations, and no VP flying boats are in production.
In 1941 Consolidated and Martin "P-boats" equipped the patrol squadrons.  New types were also being developed by Martin and Boeing.
By July of 1942, action brought about by expanded wartime operations spelled the end of the exclusively flying boat years of patrol planes.  In spite of its promise, production of the Boeing PBB-1 Sea Ranger was cancelled.  The Plant was transferred to the Army for B-29 production.  The Navy received other Army bombers for use as land based patrol bombers.
In many was the XPBB-1 Lone Ranger shown above marks a fitting turning point for patrol plane development.  As with a number of its more significant predecessors, it represented a blending of the latest developments in hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, structures and power plants to accomplish a large step forward in patrol plane capability.  Characteristicsally, the U.S. Navy's patrol planes had be frequent holders of world records and distance marks for seaplane.
While early Naval aircraft were generated water-based, the Navy;s patrol planes trace their roots to a privately developed flying boat of 1914.  This was the Curtiss America, a large bi-plane, originally a twin-engine design.


[[image caption - bottom left]]
TYPICAL CURTISS
H-series flying boat design, the H-12 of 1917 vintage was used by both and the U.S. Navy in WW 1.
[[image caption]]


[[image caption - bottom right]]
ANTI-SUBMARINE
patrols off European coast were flown by Curtiss HS's, HS-21 had 350 hp Liberty, weighed 6400 lbs., reached 82 mph.
[[image caption]]


July 1951
25